Leroy’s lowdown on season ahead
For me he’s a top striker and that he failed a medical at West Brom will have focused his mind and see him more than dedicated to the West Ham cause.
There remains a lot of pressure on Andy Carroll to stay fit but knowing Sakho is still around is a big comfort to me personally and I really hope the lad settles down to it, gets fit and gives us what we know he’s got.
Several of Slav’s signings are a bit of a mystery to me. I can’t tell you a lot about Tore and Feghouli despite them having reasonably big reputations.
Nordveit is a decent player but it really isn’t possible for me to say to what extent the team has been strengthened. We’ll all have to wait and see.
One thing is for sure though – Andre Ayew is a very good signing indeed and he already has a close relationship and undertands the way Dimi Payet operates so that could be dynamic.
He scores goals and we should be able to rely on 10 or 12 from him out of midfield which is a huge bonus for any team.
I think his best position is as a number 10 and linking up with Dimi is gonna cause a lot of teams nightmares – trust me on that. With the Frenchman playing him in behind, a lot of teams are going to be in trouble.
With everybody fit I would see us lining up like this: Adrian; Antonio, Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Nordveit, Kouyate, Lanzini, Payet, Ayew and Carroll.
But we have a big squad now and the extra players are there for Europe and a competition which can bring more pressure. However, I think we have the squad to cope with that plus injuries and suspensions.
Once we have settled down to life at the new stadium I reckon we’ll be fine but first there is the away trip to Chelea and I see us getting a 1-1 draw from that with Carroll a decent bet for our goalscorer.
With the European campaign on hand I reckon a top eight fnish would result but no predictions on anything until we get the firt few games out of the way.