Reassuring that common sense is prevailing these days at London Stadium. After the debacle that was ‘Zoumas knees’, hopefully our days of needing to buy players with a very serious medical history are behind us. Chelsea knew what the were doing, shipping Kurt out to us at what seemed a very reasonable price for an International defender.
Fans will remember Angelo Ogbonna’s fightback from the same injury which took a year plus to get back to peak performance which was, I don’t think, ever as good as before. Manuel Lanzini had a mammoth year-long recovery from his own ACL tear and missed the World Cup finals as a result. Indeed Chelsea’s own Armando Broja ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament and hasn’t returned to the player he was before.
The raising of the bar financially with West Ham’s Board injecting over £100 million means now we are able to shop at the ‘higher end’ of the player market rather than having to take greater risks to afford players: We can afford to buy those without these huge injuries which can recur or worsen over time.
However much Italian outlets such as calciomercato are still, today, insisting that Roma are indeed financing their own €25 million purchase of Kevin Danso from Lens by arranging Tammy Abrahams‘ move to West Ham, we are told in no uncertain terms from ‘sources’ near the top at London Stadium, and via other ‘in the know’ journos in the UK that the money and the ACL injury mean ‘no deal’ for The Irons.
Abrahams missed over 40 games with his knee injury and opinions vary as to his level of recovery.
A cruciate ligament injury used to be career ending but now with surgery, grafting, even using donor ligaments, players can often return to ‘almost’ their earlier selves but without that full pace and mental commitment: Those of you old enough will remember Michael Owen’s gruesome injury on England duty. He was never the same player after surgery even with a long battle back to fitness.
I for one am glad that West Ham have, despite all those reports you see claiming to the contrary, ‘passed’ on Tammy and his knee. I wish him well, I hope he finds a great club and has a long career. But he’s not a player who will be troubling the Hammers’ medical teams any time soon.
Fully agree Martin!
However, this article seems to have ignored the fact that we have gone out and signed a centre forward for £27 million who at 31 has himself suffered the misfortune of a serious ACL injury, leading to a year on the side lines?!
I am pleased with the business done this summer and have no doubt Fullkrug will score goals….. but he is going to have to score a bucket load over the next few years to convince me that we shouldn’t have just paid the extra £10 million for Duran!
Fullkrug has missed thirty games out of last 200, injury in 2020/1 I’d call him ‘fit again’. Abraham missed 42 in the last TWO seasons. Injury in 2023. work out for yourself who is fit.
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/tammy-abraham/verletzungen/spieler/331726
https://www.transfermarkt.com/niclas-fullkrug/verletzungen/spieler/75489
duran is the kid that needs to prove himself
that toddler would lose his **** within 6 months at west ham
Personally I would not go for Abraham as he is a risk unfortunately.instead I feel Duran is who we should get he is a handful for defenders fast,good movement and has a powerful shot with both feet can head a ball he is a good fit for us
This is just Roma and Abraham agents trying to generate interest in him, because roma want rid because his not the same player he was before the injury. So roma need the money so they can buy a replacement and his agents are looking for a payday, feel sorry for the guy but who wants him on his huge wages and with the injury issues. Duran if villa stop being ridiculous with their transfer fee demands will be so much better, but if villa won’t see sense they will likely end up in the same boat as the other clubs have had points, deductions after the money they have spent on transfers, we have also spent big but we have a bigger ground and following and a bigger income, and not to mention that we are indeed a bigger club than them.
I think its a good miss