This is just a personal opinion. If you are looking for ‘news’ this week it is a tough time with Internationals taking centre stage, our Hammers Captain having been called up to England duty and academy prospect Callum Marshall playing for Northern Ireland and playing over 60 minutes, apparently, acquitting himself well.
I’m just voicing the opinion that West Ham United’s dealings in the ‘free’ market are peripheral, just a distraction, and largely irrelevant to what will be our first XI or even reserve XI in the coming season. There is a danger with so many sites chasing each other for news that everything is hyped up or shouted down to create a story – I’ve seen news stories suggesting a return to West Ham for James Tomkins for heavens sake. Now of course Tonka was a great servant to West Ham but he’s 35 now and unlikely to be troubling the shirt printers at London Stadium any time soon. (Boy I’m going to look silly if ……..)
Do we really need a ‘free’ signing? Only if the three centre backs, plus Edson Alvarez who has played over 80 games at centre back in his career, according to transfermarkt.com , plus Kaelan Casey – which is five in total – prove insufficient for the twelve or so games before the transfer window opens again. If we were going to bring in Matip or Hummels or John Egan or.. Whoever-wouldn’t we have done it by now? And may I ask, having so much strength in midfield – is it that vital? How many players do we have who could take Alvarez’ place should he be needed as a Centre Back? Have you counted?
(Andy Irving sitting on the bench must wonder why he is still at West Ham with so much midfield talent in front of him in the queue to get on- he’s probably thinking of volunteering as a centre-back himself.)
I haven’t seen so much written about one tiny free potential peripheral signing at the end of a momentous window, ever! Don’t let it distract you. West Ham have had the most transformative transfer window ever, in my living memory (which, ok, does fade before about 1972)..
Does it matter who comes on board on a ‘free’? Probably not.
Will – whoever it is – ever get on the pitch? Probably not. Is it simply because we are all stuck in the ‘withdrawl’ phase of anti-climax after the best transfer window in living memory and like nicotine addicts we just need one more puff of the cigarette even though it doesn’t ‘work’ like it used to.
Time to detox, Hammers. It doesn’t matter who we bring on board, or even if we don’t (which is where I’d put my 50p). Our board has done an awesome job. Our Head Coach and Sporting Director have built the foundation to take our club in an exciting direction and our fans are pretty much behind the team. Enjoy the international break.
I promise I shan’t be speculating any more on the identity of some so-called ‘free’ agent who might or might not have dodgy knees, a dodgy achilles, no spleen or whatever. Give me the thirty grand a week, I’m about as crocked as some of the candidates (that is a joke, in case some of you are warming up the keyboards in spittle-fuelled fury!) I can sit on the bench all season and get to know Wes Foderingham. I’m sure he is a very nice young man.
My point? We’ve got a pretty inspiring group of players – if we need a centre back, one will appear. If not, lets crack on and look forward to beating Fulham. And stop shouting about ‘rumours’ of players coming, players rebuffing us – we are ready to go.
COYI!!
I would like to know? Am I right in thinking than whenever an article becomes contentious the site is taken down ( l believe it has happened to me several times) what it does of course is stop debate , while leaving uninteresting articles days old , still hanging like unwanted sweaty socks.
In theory I agree with your thoughts and point of view Martin, but maybe you could pass those same sentiments on to Gonzo and Simon, as I’m sure they definitely won’t be able to leave things alone, or let anything go that they consider worth clicking on. They’re like 2 old women down the hairdressers, just gossiping away in a Les Dawson sketch, and they definitely aren’t worried if the rumours they are spreading have any real foundation or not!
Totally agree stop clutching at straws just to get clicks making themselves look stupid and are annoying their patrons who will bugger off if they keep this up
Unless Scarles is going to be given his chance a left back is needed as its predicted Cresswell could be out for 3 months.
It’s suggested that named freebies are only backups that will never make the field.
January transfer season is never as prolific as summer and signing a player who can cover c/bk and l/bk would be a better option.
Striker is another story but Antonio only to play last 20-30 minutes in his bullish manner.
Hopefully (maybe) Ings has found his shooting boots?
Agree with you entirely – with one exception. The window was an anti-climax as we are still starting matches with Antonio upfront and talking about Ings coming back in from the cold.
Yes, overall it was a well managed transfer window, but it failed one of its main objectives. Which was to secure a strong and mobile striker to spearhead what is a fantastic attacking midfield.
I hate to be a negative but I think we will rue not paying £40m for Duran