Craig Dawson starts the first 90 minutes of the 135 he needs to complete at Manchester Unted before he becomes the club’s latest permanent signing.
As revealed earlier on this site, the shock signing from Watford needs to complete the 13 games before the club is obliged to buy him – not that this will be anything other than a delight to David Moyes.
Daws will cost the Hammers £2.2 million and £1m of that has already been paid in the form of a loan fee.
However, although the precise figure is unknown the Hammers will almost certainly need to pay a bit extra via a likely clause claiming they will do so should we reach Europe.
The 30 year old will again line up against United as the Hammers most in-form player at a time when Angelo Ogbonna has been injured and it’s a huge compliment to him that the Italian’s amazing contribution this season has barely been noticed.
Don’t forget the importance of Diop stepping up as well. He is the one that has replaced Ogbonna and is doing a great job.
I hope Dawson stays as he’s been superb but let’s not forget that Ogbonna’s contribution to our success this season before he got injured was immense. He was rock-solid all last season too. Unlucky to miss out on Hammer of the Year last year and he’s worthy of the short-list once again even if he doesn’t play another first-team minute this season. Ogbonna transformed his game in the last two years to eliminate those lapses of concentration and position and deserves huge credit and a place in our defence as soon as he’s ready. Dawson’s been brilliant, but so has Ogbonna.
Dawson has been a revelation,the low fee offsets the money wasted on Haller.My question is -who is the better player,Dawson or Tarkowski? If the cash was there.he could have been signed before we got Dawson.45 mil.I think it was Burnley were quoting.So 2mil. for Dawson is a steal.