Jose Fonte’s imminent arrival from Southampton has thrown a shadow of James Collins future with London clubs being West Ham’s only option on terms of selling the Irons loyalist.
Fonte is now virtually nailed on to sign at a fee of around £8 million over the next few days and the plan would be to team him with Winston Reid at the heart of the defence.
With Reece Oxford and Reece Burke (when fit) set to move up the pecking order and Angelo Ogbonna third in line, ‘Ginge’s’ Irons prospects look bleak.
And with his contract running out at the end of the 2018 season, the Hammers believe they can get between £2 million to £4 million in the present market place.
However, the Collins family is well settled in London and the player would have little intention of moving away for a final hurrah.
He is unlikely to command a first team spot at Premier League level although Palace boss Sam Allardyce could see him as a squad player should Palace stay afloat or drop in the Championship.
His other options would almost certainly be at Championship level should clubs such as Fulham, Brentford or QPR look in his direction.
I don’t see why this means he should leave. We then have 5 centre backs (including Oxford) which is fine for a team that usually plays 3 at the back. Reid is injury prone so we need cover.
Agree with that, and tbh I’d rather bin Oggy! Get some decent cash as well.
He didn’t do too bad last season but has been erratic this, and is a penalty waiting to happen imo.
8m for a 33 year old defender, I am lost for words on who is making decisions on club signings – another dreadful signing and will prove another failure. Mr Henry your days are numbered..
Strange that you would blame Henry when every one of the signings made under allardyce were a success with henry as chief scout and under bilic aside from his first window (in which most of the signings had been already identified before slav go there) pretty much every signing has been a flop. My guess is that Henry will bring his suggestions on each position and bilic either chooses from them or says hold on henry i like ___ I think hed do a good job for us. I actually think we would be better off if bilic stayed out of it altogether because I have no doubt that Bilic has had final say on the majority of signings we have made and for the mos part they have been shocking.
Ginge over oggy for me
I would keep him as well until the end of the season but maybe he wants a move for more games at his age.I will be well happy to get Fonte.Saints captain,rarely injured & a very good centre back.For £8 million i would take him all day long 😉
Good to see you back during the transfer windows to slag off any signings Johnham,it just aint the same in Januarys without you criticising every possible signing 😂😂
You mean johnham1 is like this every window????..i haven’t seen a single player linked he hasn’t called rubbish since the window opened..i was starting to think he was a spud troll…
Lol LF,yeah every window Johnham appears to crucify any new signing.God knows where he goes the rest of the year he only appears when the windows are open.He is sound as a pound though.
You are just a transfer window manic depressant aint ya John lol 😂😂
some people will disagree with near enough every player linked/signed, too old or too young, another team’s flop, not enough experience, should be going for younger championship stars etc etc…
The chairmen wont be able to do anything right, Spend too much & it will be money wasted but if they don’t spend enough then people will scream they’re being tight & were only lying about spending any in the first place.
The options are quite limited Essex.We shouldnt buy Championship players because they might not be good enough for the PL.We shouldnt buy foreigners because they might not adapt.We shouldn’t buy players over 30 & we shouldn’t pay out too much for young players because they might never make it in the PL.
I think i have cracked it though.We should only sign Scottish,English or Welsh players who are 26 & have played in the PL for at least 5 years.Do you know any? 😂
I am really starting to loose faith in Bilic’s ability to spot a player with this signing. Fonte has been error prone every time I have seen him this season. He is on the downward curve and us paying £12 million for him is like someone paying £12 million for ginger collins (Fonte is slightly better but you get my drift). The summer was a disaster in terms of recruitment but I could get over that and call it a blip if he learned a lesson from it but that doesnt seem to be the case. We have not been linked with one right back in this window when we have needed one for a year now. most goals that we have conceeded this season have come down our right hand side and Bilic STILL wont sign a proper right back. We have needed a striker since Sakho lost his marbles but our big signing is a 33 year old centre back . Bilic will have to do something in this window that says to me that he has got a clue or its time up for me.
Deary me the cyber transfer scouts are really out in force now the window is drawing to a conclusion.
Two excellent summer windows and the club have a great system in place.One bad one & everyone is clueless..wow.
Could be Conte wants Ogbonna at Chelski,given his form this season, Id prefer that. COYI