Whispers

Leroy: Irons midfield competition will be red hot

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LEROY (1)We are living through some exciting times as Irons fans and the arrival of Dimitri Payet has really turned the lights on at Upton Park…believe me this is one fantastic footballer.

We have had a lot of players who will do the jobs asked of them but in Payet we have a 7/10 performer who is going to bring so much to the table. He won’t do it every week – no player does but when he does watch out. We’ll be out of our seats.

I was reading about some of the incidents he has been involved in down the years like having a punch-up with his captain during a game. I like a character – it’s good. Will he become our new Paolo Di Canio?

I think the midfield players who have become automatic choices over the last few years under Sam Allardyce are going to be really challenged this season.

The word I’m hearing is that Slaven Bilic wants to bring in another attacking midfielder which means that we will have whoever that turns out to be, Chiek Kouyate, Mark Noble, Payet, Downing, Morgan Amalfitano, Stewart Downing, hopefully Diego Poyet Β and possibly Alex Song all vying for places.

Too many players grabbed a shirt regardless of their form under Sam but that’s gonna change in a big way and hopefully nobody will be sulking because we are now a club on the up as far as I can see and rotation is the way it has to be.

We don’t yet know how the new boss is going to set up but I believe he will be play a much more fluid game than Sam Allardyce and I think a few players will need to get used to being rotated. These are exciting times. We are going to another level.

It will take a bit of time but every big club has two good players for each position. That will certainly be the case in the middle of the park. Hopefully other areas are going to be strengthened.

However, things bed down with the squad I’ll guarantee this -under Slaven Bilic we will be watching a much more exciting and fluid brand off football.

His style of play as Croata manager was fantastic to watch – I’m getting ready for a Hammers revolution.

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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

21 comments

  • Stingray Stewart says:

    How can you guys disrespect a bunch of men who think Javier Hernandez is not good enougn for us,lol,now i know the have officially lost the plot πŸ˜€

  • eriko says:

    Hahaha!! Just got a reminder why I prefer this forum, thank god.. I almost didn’t find my way out of there!!!

    • Quickdraw Slaven a party says:

      That’s good,exhausted but just that bit wiser,can’t be bad lol

  • eriko says:

    What’s the opinion on formation, I haven’t got a clue on Slav concerning trademark system and tactics. Any thoughts?!

  • Quickdraw Slaven a party says:

    By necessity (as long as we tick along nicely) there’ll have to be rotation. I think Slav will have his preferred players but will pick on merit due to form,stamina and nothing else.

  • TysonM says:

    Top piece Leroy.Agree,players need to earn their place,not get it handed on a plate because of who they are.Last year was embarressing to watch with Nolan being trotted out just because he was hippos favoured boy.No player should be picked to the detriment of the team.Slav will probably have favourites but hopefully they are not the ones who are the weaker links in the team like last year.

  • bubs says:

    What about our new Spanish lad he is a midfielder in the same mole as Kouyate and Jarvis
    Who has as much chance as Noble,
    Noble is the one that will have a problem getting in if we are playing two up top out of Sakho
    Valencia,Carroll,Lee,Zarate and Magia with a player maker Payet or Downing or Afitano
    That leaves 3 places for wide men or Defansive midfielders of which Noble is none,

  • Slater says:

    Truest words ever said, certain players need to earn their spot now. Now the fraud is gone we’ll see players playing on merit.

  • boys of '66 says:

    Noble will struggle to get a start this season in the prem if the other lads are all they are cracked up to be.That doesnt bother me at all if others are performing better.I want players in the team based on form,not because their name is ‘Kevin’ or ‘He’s one of our own’.That rubbish has to stop.Get in on merit,for no other reason than that.

  • TRB says:

    It’s time to release Kevin Nolan. Give the captaincy to Reid because Noble won’t start too often (Though the early stages of Europa Cup and League Cup may be his best opportunities). I expect him to move on in a years’ time. Same opinion for Amalfitano. The midfielder I’m looking to get in front of these two is Diego Poyet. No more loan deals for him please! Bring his energy into the matchday squad and watch him grow, Mr Bilic.

    • fobyac says:

      I agree, I’d like to see Poyet get a chance this season, none of us really know much about Obiang to be fair, it wasn’t as if there was a whole host of clubs in for him and his price was pretty low.
      He might be crap.

  • Michael Miller says:

    It’s going to be tough for Mark Noble this year, you can’t see him getting much action – I bet he’s glad they gave him that long contract!

    • HungryHammer66 says:

      Spot on Michael, I know he is “Mr West Ham” and he gets about the pitch, puts shifts in etc but he is technically average , poor vision and distribution and does not score goals and I really hope the new competition for places improves his game and we see the best of him.
      COYI’s

  • Quickdraw Slaven a party says:

    Great peice Leroy. I think we’re about to sort the wheat from the chaff,hopefully competition for places will bring out the best in the players and any it doesn’t can look elsewhere. A few more additions and we’re ready for the next stage but tbh as long as we get back to being entertaining I’ll be happy.

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