I, and CandH in general, have given Manuel Pellegrini a bashing over the last few months.
It’s all too easy to remember the bad and forget the good when caught up in the ups and downs of life as a Hammer so tonight let’s give some credit where its due.
There were certainly plenty of bad buys under the Chilean but he deserves real credit for signing £4 million Fabian Balbuena who is proving himself a very good player and highly determined character.
He was being strongly rumoured as being on his way out a few weeks ago and had been disregarded by Paraguay as prior to the last international break.
Some were saying that Moyes didn’t rate him and that seemed confirmed by the well-publicised bid to get James Tarkowski in from Burnley.
Didn’t happen and The General refused to be written off. Good for him and given the price we paid for him we can be pretty chuffed with the way things have turned out.
Pablo Fornals too – at £24 million – looked likely to become another Pelle disappointment but, fair play, he is doing a pretty good job and it may well be the best is yet to come.
Ok, there’s been the likes of Wilshere, Ajeti, Yarmo Haller and THAT goalkeeper Roberto but credit where it’s due, The General, in particular, was a decent bit of business by anyone’s standards.
And it was good to hear today that despite being tracked by South American clubs he wants to stay exactly where he is!
Nice to recall it wasn’t all bad!
Not sure about Haller being a bad buy Hugh , he’s looking brighter the more game time he gets. I can see him getting goals with the right service , Benrhama possibly . Well let’s hope he does well , I’m sure there more to come from him . Very good 3 points last night but a bit nervy . Need better then that against Man Utd , we have seen them better this year so let’s see them up for it . COYI ⚒
For the price, he’s a bad buy. Not worth anywhere near 45.
No fair comment mark – wrote that without too much though mate LOL
Overall a fair comment Hugh – I remember Alvin Martin commenting that we were being promoted thanks to Lou Macari (who was generally an unpopular manager but who made some good buys like Ludo and Mad dog Martin Allen) – so certainly some of Pelle’s signings are good – the problem was he could not see what most fans could that we needed a tough midfielder (like Soucek)
I do not think Haller is worth more than 25k.He cannot score enough goals to make a difference.That is why we have 8 goals from players all over the park.He just waits while everyone is running their bollox off.Everyone that keeps rattling on that Haller needs service .I’ve never heard that in my life until now.Most strikers score goals from set pieces and breaks and the occasional goal from nothing.Haller has done none of these.Granted,his strike against Sheffield Utd was nicely done,but let’s see how many more goals He gets.Those goals he scored against the lower league teams are not a way to sum up a premiership striker.He was a complete waste of money .I feel as if something is going to happen more when Antonio and Yarmo play to be honest.
Fabianski, Diop, Fornals, Haller, Yarmolenko, Balbuena, Anderson (first season) Pellegrini made a lot of good signings that have helped raise the quality level within the club, Yarmo has had a lot of injuries but has scored some vital goals and was looking like he was starting to push Bowen. Also Pellegrini never signed one of his top forward targets, Haller was very much last choice allbeit an expensive one, if we supply with quality ball he will score plenty of goals because he is a good finisher, the same is true of Yarmo.