Over the years we have missed out on some fine players as I wrote last week – here’s a few more !
The ones that got away – Part 2
Petr Cech
When Petr Cech was closing in on a move to Chelsea in 2004, the goalkeeper’s compatriot and former West Ham No.1 Ludek Miklosko shed some light on how things could have been very different.
He said: “I was interested in bringing Petr over to England when he was 19, but I eventually decided that it would be a mistake. He was not yet ready for English football and needed to continue his development back in the Czech Republic,”
Cech would end up joining Rennes shortly after his 20th birthday, spending two years at the French club before completing a move to Stamford Bridge.
West Ham decided to go with experience instead – Raimond van der Gouw was almost double the Czech stopper’s age when he joined from Manchester United in the summer of 2002.
Alvaro Negredo
Negredo
In the summer of 2013, when it looked as though West Ham would have no chance of making Andy Carroll’s loan move from Liverpool permanent, another transfer target emerged.
Sam Allardyce’s side had a £14.5million bid rejected for Negredo, just 12 months after the Sevilla striker had played his part in Spain’s Euro 2012 triumph.
By the time the Hammers realised Carroll was indeed available for a comparable price, it didn’t seem to matter that the Spaniard wouldn’t have cost a whole lot more.
Negredo scored 23 goals in his one and only City season, including a hat-trick against West Ham in the League Cup semi-finals, as the Manchester club ended the campaign with two trophies.
Carroll scored 23 over the course of the next four seasons combined.
Edinson Cavani
West Ham were in pursuit of Cavani back in 2009, with the view that the Uruguayan was regarded as a replacement for Craig Bellamy after the Welshman’s move to Manchester City.
Cavani, then 22 years old, had enjoyed a breakthrough season with Palermo after reportedly being on the verge of an exit 12 months earlier, and West Ham had renewed their interest in the light of his 15-goal season.
Palermo opted to hold on to the striker, though, eventually holding out for a €17million fee from Napoli at the end of that season.
West Ham, unwilling to wait, signed the mercurial Allessandro Diamati and Luis Jiménez. Neither really hit the heights expected of them.
N’Golo Kante
West Ham’s 2015-16 season was one of our best in the Premier League era, but it might have been even better if Kante had joined from Caen instead of moving to eventual champions Leicester City.
Slaven Bilic revealed the Frenchman, who made his second Foxes appearance in a win at Upton Park, was on West Ham’s shortlist earlier that summer, only for the club to decide they were all set for defensive midfielders by the time Kante moved to the East Midlands.
The man who West Ham plumped for instead? Alex Song, who made just the eight league starts after extending his loan from Barcelona.
Ray “Tonka” Stewart – Penalty King
Tonka in his prime
Ray Stewart’s career at West Ham will be fondly remembered by fans of that era not just for his resolute defending, but also his fantastic penalty taking record.
Ray joined the Hammers from Dundee United in 1979 for £430,000 for what was then a record fee for a British teenager. The Scot was to go on to make 432 appearances for West Ham and scored 84 goals from right back
There are differing views on how many penalties Ray actually missed during his West Ham career and Ray himself, when asked, does not include the those where he followed up with these rebounds. Initial misses are most likely to be around ten as most stats say he scored 76 from 86 attempts.
For me the two most important penalties he ever took were in the quarter final of the FA Cup in 1980 against Aston Villa and in the League Cup final the following year at Wembley against Liverpool.
Both were highly pressurised and important and Ray belted both of them home! And tonk them he did. His style was no nonsense and hit with such power that both his feet ended up off the ground after striking the ball.
The one against Villa was in the dying moments of the game and was to earn the Hammers a place in the FA Cup semi-final. It sent Upton Park into a frenzy.
The one against Liverpool was to earn a League Cup final replay and was with the last kick of the match. No pressure then ! But Ray just walked back and booted it home.
Legend !
West Ham are 4th !
Forget the league table, it’s all about the Premier League net spend table. Not surprisingly Chelsea are way out in front after this season of spending…
italics denotes a profit; final league positions in brackets…
1) Chelsea: £-654.21m
22/23: £-480.38m
21/22: £5.79m (3rd)
20/21: £-166.86m (4th)
19/20: £98.57m (4th)
18/19: £-110.23m (3rd)
2) Manchester United: £-540.23m
22/23: £-203.26m
21/22: £-99.5m (6th)
20/21: £-56.45m (2nd)
19/20: £-134.87m (3rd)
18/19: £-45.8m (6th)
3) Arsenal: £-485.64m
22/23: £-148.94m
21/22: £-120m (5th)
20/21: £-59m (8th)
19/20: £-94.58m (8th)
18/19: £-62.71m (5th)
4) West Ham: £-356.5m
22/23: £-152.21m
21/22: £-62.02m (7th)
20/21: £-8.2m (6th)
19/20: £-56.77m (16th)
18/19: £-76.91m (10th)
Here is a question for you…what is the Irons longest ever run in the Premier League?
10 games (February to May 2016)
Sitting, as we do, in the top 10 of the all-time Premier League table (yes, it is surprising, but true – do have a look), West Ham probably ought to have gone longer than 10 straight games unbeaten at some point. But we are, for our innumerable sins, West Ham, so the Payet inspired excellence towards the end of the 2015/16 season remains our best effort. The Frenchman scored or assisted nine of the 22 goals the Hammers scored in a sequence which saw them draw 3-3 with Arsenal, 2-2 against Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Leicester and beat Everton and the Spuds (obviously) in a spirited but ultimately ill- fated charge towards Champions League qualification.
Our run was ended by a visit to Swansea which ended our lofty European aspirations. Seven years is a long time !
All-Time Premier League Table 1992-93 to 2022-23 (31 Seasons)
| # | Club | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Points | |
| 1 | Manchester United | 1,178 | 718 | 262 | 198 | 2,226 | 1,101 | 1,125 | 2,416 | |
| 2 | Arsenal FC | 1,180 | 641 | 287 | 252 | 2,083 | 1,174 | 909 | 2,210 | |
| 3 | Chelsea FC | 1,179 | 628 | 292 | 259 | 2,002 | 1,153 | 849 | 2,176 | |
| 4 | Liverpool FC | 1,178 | 621 | 288 | 269 | 2,068 | 1,176 | 892 | 2,151 | |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 1,180 | 517 | 285 | 378 | 1,797 | 1,478 | 319 | 1,836 | |
| 6 | Manchester City | 989 | 492 | 214 | 283 | 1,725 | 1,093 | 632 | 1,690 | |
| 7 | Everton FC | 1,180 | 424 | 328 | 428 | 1,513 | 1,521 | -8 | 1,600 | |
| 8 | Newcastle United | 1,060 | 394 | 275 | 391 | 1,416 | 1,436 | -20 | 1,457 | |
| 9 | Aston Villa | 1,065 | 365 | 301 | 399 | 1,300 | 1,392 | -92 | 1,396 | |
| 10 | West Ham United | 1,022 | 341 | 259 | 422 | 1,259 | 1,463 | -204 | 1,282 | |
