22 Comments

Irons face signing dilemma

Andre Ayew

Andre Ayew

Diafra Sakho’s failed move to West Brom has left the Irons with a  signing dilemma!

Manager Slaven Bilic has admitted that the striker failed a medical and we now understand Sak is keen to settle down under a new programe of fitness and rehab to ensure that he makes a complete recovery from his back problem.

However, with the £16 million move now off, the possibility of signing both Andre Ayew from Swansea and another striker – be at Carlos Bacca or someone else – is now very much in the lap of the gods.

BaccaIt could mean the club finding any figure north of £40 million for the two and that would not appear to be on and whilst the board are considering it, the issue is exercising their minds.

Should the club decide on a double signing it would be a huge statement of intent to therest of the Premier League as we aim towards achieve the objective of  Champions  League football.

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

22 comments on “Irons face signing dilemma

  1. LOL…..im guessing you left autocorrect off when you typed this article hugh lol

    • He always leaves auto correct off – in fact, I know one of his colleagues from the Sunday Sport and he told me Hugh didn’t ever manage to submit an article that was error free… which is slightly embarrassing for a Journalist.

      • Err that’s why there are sub editors. Interesting you know someone who saw EVERY piece I ever wrote and no not embarrassing at all so we’ll take that with the usual pinch of salt given that until the last coupla years all copy was taken over the phone by people with headphones and called copytakers. So do leave off with such nonsense. I don’t mind people disagreeing with me but not too impressed when they talk downright rubbish.

      • Surprise,surpirse AOI is back to write his normal rubbish.Its been so long I was hoping you had snuffed it.

  2. Its easy one this ! Just buy one get one free using the old ink cartridge ploy , works every time !! And if that don’t work Brady could chuck in a free coffee as well !!
    On a serious note ! F in B minor .
    Let the club sort it Ffs , this is brain damage !!

  3. No dilemma

    If bacca wanted to join he would have a month ago. He is dictating to the club what and what he wants, and if he doesn’t get what he wants he will throw toys out of his pushchair. This will be a continuous thing until he leaves or thrown out!!!
    Ayew is the guy. Destroyed us at our place.
    Knows how pl works. No toys either!!!!

  4. Right we get 12 million back for Valencia so that puts us £30 million in the red for this window even if we don’t loose Sak,
    Calleri is a lone Tomo,s sake covered most of the rest,
    Compared with others that’s nothing,Chelski have trebled that Manure and City 4 times as much Liverpoor even if they sell Will have spent double,Leicester double,Spuds more then us when they finish double probably,
    We are looking at £5 million for a defender
    £8 million for the other Ayew
    We have options to sell AC,Obiang and Poyet who may not fit Slavs plans,
    With our TV income,Europe plus our new stadium,
    We should be spending £80 to £100 million to break into the top 4.
    We are going for it or playing at and blowing smoke up our fans back sides,
    No more talk about poor Westham,our owners are sitting on a fortune and they know i,
    I am greatful for what you have done owners but no more hype,
    You should have sold Sak weeks ago and Valencia and we would not be in this position,
    I hope we don’t read next week how the Bacca deal collapsed because we changed the goal post and how Ayew does not fit our plans,but I am expecting it

  5. I really hope we are right about Ayew! I have concerns. If we sign him, we have Sakho, Carroll, Enner. I would think Calleri after that would be sufficient. Hope he comes.

  6. We mght have Sakho,Enner,for now Johnham,who knows plus Carroll but we also know all three of them spend as much time on the treatment table as on the pitch.Im totally p#ssed off with the injuries & ending up with the likes of Cole,Jelavic & Emenike leading our line.If we keep all three as our main striking options for a third season it will be groundhog day 😀

  7. Sam, I agree with what you say. I just don’t think Ayew is a CF, I think Sakho is better than him as a 9. From what I have seen in the games so far Enner has impressed me more than Carroll. Carroll will score goals but my fear is the only place we can play him is as a 9 but unless you play two up top he is going to struggle. I would love to see us going 3-5-2 with two up top, I think if Enner and Sakho stay injury free they can play a big part in our season. We need another option up top in addition to Ayew. Calleri and Bacca will give us very strong options up top but I am not sure if we need them all unless we are planning to sell Enner or Carroll. I cant see any buyers for Sakho this summer.

    • Yeah I agree Johnham,you are right Ayew isnt an out an out centre forward.I was just saying im totally fed up of ending up with no forward line.We need to learn the lesson from the last two seasons that whether you love or loathe our fowards you can’t get away from the fact they are injury prone.Im at the end of my tether with our fecking injury prone forwards 😀

  8. There may be even more to all that has been said, to date.
    Have you wondered why Valencia has been playing so well again?
    Heard of Jamie Avoyi, Valencia’s striking partner for Ecuador? You may be soon!
    Valencia, a rehabilitated Sakho (?), Ayew, Calleri, and add in Avoyi, plus one of Mandzukic, Gomez, or even ‘crackers’ Bacca (and of course, AC) could bring fire-works up front.
    If Enner decides to stay, and Saks can get his act together, it could be ‘Happy Days’ again,

    • Max I think if we got Avoyi, Ayew and Calleri on top of Enner, Sakho and Carroll that is plenty and it is very good business.

  9. Ok so let’s look at this we sign Ayew and Sakho stays + Carroll , we still need one more striker of quality and reliability so we have 4 to choose from for this coming season so they should still keep trying and yes they more than have the Kitty for it !!
    I think Sakho will use his nut if he wants to keep a good price on his head, so he will have to perform and my gut feeling is if he starts to score goals he & all will be happy again and stay !

  10. Can’t see there being more than 4 first team strikers ?enner , sak , carol , calleri ? , bacca ,?ayew , if bacca comes enner will probably go , that leaves 5 , and if , and if and if ,
    Best let the club do its buisness ( if it can ) otherwise we ain’t got no choice but go with what we got ! A lot could happen in the next week , well let’s hope so .

  11. Can’t believe some people think we’re awash with cash? Take a look at the books we’ve still got plenty to sort out, plus we’ve probably spent a pretty penny trying to westhamificate the OS. We used to have the ticket money for transfers (20m) and still needed payday loans, then the Daves went and pushed the boat out last season and went for 30m (but admitted we’d be showing a 7-10m loss over the year) now we probably have the same or a little more plus any money coming in like Tomkins, but that covered Lanzini’s fee. We’re certainly not at the level some think, yet.

  12. The amount our strikers spend injured if you have 6 of them it wouldn’t be enough… Ayew is more likely the straight swap for Valencia so I don’t think that is an issue, Bacca fill the position normally filled by Sakho but anyway if Sakho isn’t going to play which is likely you still have to replace him whether he is on the books or not. If Bacca doesn’t come it doesn’t matter as Callieri also plays right side CF although Argentina lost he had some good moments and we have Fletcher who can play in any forward position, we haven’t seen yet what Martinez has to offer. Really I think it depends on what other players Slav wants to go in and how much money is available for them. If Ayew comes in and we keep both Sakho and Valencia, we could maybe use them for the European games certainly Valencia will get more free kicks awarded in his favour in the European games than he does when playing in the PL.

    • Just saw another article saying Bacca has agreed to come but board blocking it… Obviously probably speculation by Journo’s but with you saying something similar, I would rather have Bacca than Ayew at least that is a marquee signing…

  13. Sorry Enner, you’re a trier I’ll give you that, but I’d take £10mill for you right now. Add the Tompkins fee and that’s Ayew in as a goal-scoring upgrade for very little outlay.
    Get Bacca in! Along with AC, Calleri, Fletcher and Sak (if he stays) and I think we’ve enough going forward, especially if Slav ends his Antonio at RB experiment and allows him to play further forward (Byram at RB, heresy). If Sak knuckles down, shows the right attitude and bangs them in like a couple of seasons ago (staying injury free hopefully), I for one will be happy. Just cover for RB/LB needed. Oh and the other Ayew, nor for me thanks.

  14. Sakho unfortunately has now cost the club £16m and is unsellable until January so Valencia may bee the one who has to go. He has looked better recently though. Sakho should never play for us again.

  15. Still can’t see what most of you can where Valencia is back to form,
    How many goals has he scored 0
    How many assist 0
    How many shots on goal 0
    How many decent passes to his own players 0
    How many times ran with the ball only to go up a blind alley
    100%
    That’s the form we need from a striker,
    Sak,s finished no way back with most fans and Slav ( I think )
    We need proven goal scorer Ayew and Bacca give us that
    Calleri and Ayew junior also,
    Fletcher and Martinez also but need 1/2 seasons yet,
    No club is balancing the books at the moment all the top clubs are deep in debt,
    Yes we can’t expect the 2 Daves to spend their fortune non stop,but they will get every penny back eventually when they sell up
    One good season in England and Europe such as last year and our squad will be worth double,
    No good having the Stadium and fans if you don’t have the players,
    Pay up and buy the best we have waited and payed for long enough

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