‘High Mileage’ Forward Rejected by Hammers

Some of us have been tempted by that gleaming, well priced Supercar on the forecourt: Sensibly priced, beautiful condition, looking stunning: A look inside showing 200,000 miles on the clock causes a rethink, if you’re sensible. Loads of trouble built up over that young vehicle’s life, just about to implode. Time to walk away and go back to shopping in the BMW market.

Well, deadline day saw some wild and wacky rumours coming into my lap top. One of those persistent ones which wouldn’t go away concerned on hugely expensive, high profile attacker who was being punted around various London clubs, West Ham United included. Former England, Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea star Raheem Sterling seemed an unlikely season-long loan recruit to East London and one I quickly dismissed and went on searching the bulletins and reports.

But it turns out that the West Ham United management did indeed have a discussion about bringing the 29 year old to London Stadium.

Now Raheem is I’m sure still as fast as anyone on our books, immensely successful and comes with a huge pedigree. But I could not see West Ham being interested in one of the countries’ most expensive forwards however good he was. In any case I’d already seen comments form Claret and Hugh’s highly placed source at the club which confirmed ‘we don’t need any more wingers’ or something like that (last Friday seems a blur- must be the 25 espresso’s)

However it seems Raheem Sterling was indeed discussed by the Hammers hierarchy, and was rejected not for his salary demands- which caused me to choke on my post – deadline day decaf – because as we now know, his parent club are footing most of the bill for him to have been loaned out as a Gooner this season.

The reason he was rejected? His ‘footballing age’.  According to today’s Independent , at 29 years old he was deemed to have played so much football in a long career that he was like a ‘high mileage’ Porsche which glitters on the forecourt at a price that matches a much lower mileage BMW: Over 200,000 miles on the clock means bags of potential for trouble under the bonnet which at first glance you cannot see. It was thought his body had done so much hard work at a relatively young age that Sterling wasn’t worth bringing on board.  Much the same was said, I think, years ago of Michael Owen after big injuries, who was practically done’ before the age of 30 and struggled when Manchester United took him on.

An interesting inconsistency, bearing in mind some of the ‘high mileage’ models we have in attack wearing  Claret and Blue!

Time will tell how well Sterling lives up to a season in red and white in North London. I have a sneaky suspicion that there’s a few more miles left before he conks out!  Maybe mentally he’s lost that edge: a journey man trying to get back into the England squa might not be so committed to the club who’s colours he wears.