Graham Potter appears, to all intents and purposes, to have made his mind up about ‘marmite’ midfielder Tomas Soucek. From Claret and Hugh’s earlier article it seems West Ham’s manager seeks to upgrade and improve on the immobility and lack of creativity that has been only too evident this season.
Whilst this might feel incredibly bruising for one of the Hammers’ most loyal and hardworking players, and bewildering for his thousands of West Ham supporters – me included – what cannot be denied is that the Hammers need to improve on their woeful centre of the park performances in 2024-5.
So providing fellow midfielders Edson Alvarez, Guido Rodrigues, James Ward Prowse and loanee Carlos Soler also come under the Potter axe then Hammers’ scorched earth policy could be justified as ‘ripping up and starting again’.
The Hammers have long been linked Columbian Richard Rios – a combative midfielder currently plying his trade in Brazil with Palmeiras. Of late it had been reported that FC Porto were the ‘top tipped’ side to bid for Rios (him of the daft alleged €85 million release clause) at up to €20 million, but they’ve since backed away, leaving West Ham an opportunity to become the first in line. Insidefulbol.com report today that:
“West Ham United have now been boosted in their chase of midfield target Richard Rios, as European giants FC Porto are out of the race….Palmeiras are ready to let Rios go, but they are looking for a fee of around €30m to do that.”
Rios would certainly be an upgrade on Tornado Tom: For the €30 million figures being discussed that would certainly be a ‘do-able’ Hammers deal if they could convince David Moyes to come up with £15 million to take the Czech to Everton. Soucek has been a wonderful servant of the club and it would be sad to see him got – but bringing in Rios would most certainly sweeten a bitter pill for fans to swallow.
At Brighton , Potter achieved mediocrity and at Chelsea nothing . Potter’s offense is slow and lumbering and his defense cracks under pressure . Soucek has good defensive qualities and gets a goal every 4 games which for Westham is priceless . Soucek has always been a box to box player and doesn’t rely on speed , he just always finds the space . Get dynamic midfielders but keep Soucek .
Potter should be the first one out the door find a coach that actually knows what he is doing then let him build the team All Potter wants is players that we either cant afford or want champions league So will have no desire to come to WHU They got it right when they called him a FLAKE
Well written article. Yes, we all love Tomas, but the business of it is we can collect a decent fee for him, he can get a longer final contract (which he supposedly wants but won’t get with us) and we can use the money to replace him with a younger option that tackles and passes better. Winning all round.
Yes Soucek is thirty, but with young players coming in he could do a job.
I would play him in front of the back four and staying there!….Go up for corners thats it…Save his legs…At the moment he gets involved with transitions and basically slows the game down…Yes he pops up with a goal occasionally….But if you have some young runners like we used to have…Benny ..Fornals… It will suit him..He can be more effective when we lose the ball…He has the stamina just not the pace….Be a shame to lose him to Moyes anyway …Because you know he will get the best out of him…
As for Potters major cull of the squad…It will be a concern for all of us i think…Until about three or four games in to next season….Its the hope that kills you..
Lies lies lies, Sully out, Tim in
This site seems to view the finance of transfers on very much a cash basis. Presumably Tomas is on the books at pretty much zero by this stage so selling him means anything we get for him is pure profit. That suggested 15 million (pounds) gives you far more headroom than buying a player for 30 million (Euros). Then there’s the wages. Tomas’ last salary deal got him around 4.5 million a year. It’s likely that an incoming Brazilian player would be on far less than that (maybe 2 million a year less). But given Tomas’ wages, unless he’s going to take a cut I’d question we’d get 15 million for him. On a three year contract, at his current wages and a 15 million fee that’s around 10 million a year. If Moyes wants to pay that much for him at his age, God bless him, but would you?
Bottom line you get 15 million for Tomas, save another 15 million on wages and suddenly bringing in a younger player at E30 million hardly seems like a stretch. Plus in three years time your Brazilian hopefully has some sell on value whereas Tomas won’t?
Missing the point here Soucek is a good player that scores goals W ham through and through You know what your getting You build your team around your strongest players not sell them
Tomas is one of our best goalscorers, but one of our best players? Your idea is that we build a team around a player who is thirty? Also moving on may be a far better pay day for him – and us. When he is out of contract we get nothing for him
Some well made points.
I’d still keep Soucek for his commitment, goals, and experience in the Premiership if we are looking at Earhy and Potts joining the first team.
JWP or Rodriguez would be the more favourable players to upgrade. Both would not generate much in transfer revenue, but losing their high wages would be highly beneficial.
Big mistake this mark my words
Would love to know what happened to the 57 million we bid for Duran in January.
See it all playing out now. Rios in. Soucek out. Two months in and it’s not working. Rios injured or just not performing. Wishing we had Soucek back. Waiting until January before we can find a Rios replacement at extraordinary cost. Unable to get Soucek back – management do not want to lose face – so try someone else. Lose loads of money and still no improvement.
Have a word, Martin. Graham may be about to act on very bad advice.
COYI
would that I could ‘have a word’.. haha quite sure Potter isn’t interested in mine – or anyone else’s opinion.. sadly
Can’t say I know what the right thing to do is but getting lots of new players in takes a strong coach to make it work. I like Potter but the evidence so far suggests he is not a tactical genius that plays to the squad he’s got. It’s fair enough that it’s a bad squad that he didn’t choose but he’s done worse with it than Lopetegui which seemed impossible. I’m glad I’m not making the decisions.