I never believed we were likely to see Nene on the bench against Spurs on Sunday even if required despite David Gold’s optimistic tweet of a few days ago.
The Brazilian hasn’t played for a month and I trust Sam Allardyce’s assessment that he is probably ten days to a fortnight away despite being told privately that he could be ready within a week.
What I’m not so sure about is whether we will see him against Palace or indeed very much at all! Time will of course tell.
At heart I’m a cynic and have sat through too many press conferences where managers have said the right thing at the right time before allowing the initial high interest to erode along with fan interest.
Nene has been a big issue this week – along with the manager’s own position – on which he has really said nothing at all.
Indeed the Brazilian’s arrival was perhaps a convenient distraction with the manager claiming: “He’s a naturally fit player and he’s not far away. I think ten days to two weeks before he’s ready.. He could be ready for the Crystal Palace – we’ll have to wait and see.”
Indeed we will although with a fortnight being such a long time in football there’s a danger of course that we will all forget the assessment from Sam.
I hope that Sakho and Valencia are in such fine form that there’s no need to call on him and will be carefully tracking and remembering these words.
The manager’s comments on his own position in fact represented a zero response. Indeed it would be difficult for him to do anything else and he’s probably responding in the only way possible by repeating the party line that all will be decided at the end of the season.
However, the situation is in fact very straightforward. The club is looking for a replacement and only should they fail to find the right person will he be offered some sort of deal.
And should that be the case can any of us see him turning around and saying: “Thank you very much Daves …of course!”
If Sakho and Valencia do not refind their early season form he will revert to type and play Cole,in which case he will play wingers and that is when he may play Nene,
Then he can fit Nolan back as inside don’t move a lot goal hanger just like the old days
Then he will get his lucky 100 goal and will be that for this season,
Nene will come on to replace Downing or Alfitano who can’t get into the game out wide
The fans will be leaving early heads down BFS clapping the fans sarcastically as we grind out a 0-0 or 1-0 win,
But that could be that for BFS
All this speculation is all very well but all we can be sure of is that at the moment our season is in very serious danger of stalling and that if the club didn’t do something quickly, then there was a real danger of all our previous good work unraveling before our eyes.
It is also true that just as the moody, sulky spud striker was lined up as an impact signing I believe that Nene has been signed in the same vein.
The only thing to be decided is whether Nene can be that spark that kickstarts our season or whether a player who hasn’t played for weeks and plied his trade in the Middle East can be that man.
Either way I hope he gets his chance as let’s face it he has to be better than Cole! COYI!
The positive i still take from this season is that as fans apart from Nolan we have very few grumbles about the players.Often when things go wrong many players get savaged.But this team has many decent players,very few regulars that have over the season let us down.We know that if given the chance to play in a system suited to get the best out of them we have a more than good team.It is just a case of getting someone in to allow them to be the team we know they could be.There is no way that the Southampton team man for man is better than us,but they have been allowed to express themselves.Even when they lost 5 in a row Koeman stuck by his beliefs & came out the other side.If that had been Sam they would have spent the rest of this season playing 4-6-0 formations.
Who is Allardyce to summise if a player is fit ,surely that’s the mdeisc assessment.Seeings as he will get ten minutes at most, how fit does he need to be? He only needs to be fit enough to make an impact,is get the winner!
Sites like this is why there is so much negativity with the fans of this club, Rugbyirons , who is Allardyce to surmise ? He is the manager he is paid to make the decisions he knows a lot more than you or the rest of us I can assure you.
Speak for yourself mate
Speak for yourself mate
I thought forums like this were here so west ham fans can express their opinions.Maybe the fact that most are negative tells you all you need to know about Allardyce & the fans feelings towards him.It would appear the board have also lost faith in him to take us on any further.As for the fitness debate.How can he know anything about a players fitness levels,he plays Nolan every week.I struggle to see that he can be called fit.Not Premier League fit.If someone is too slow for the premiership they cant he fit for purpose.
englandsnumber6 your not Conkerpot in disguise are you ?
If not you sound like him being negative about our opinions you have your say we have ours,Allardyce thinks every one should play once a month or they suffer from fatigue except his boy Nolan who is so fit he can play every game ( in slow motion ),
On this forum we respect each other’s opinions even yours but if you don’t like the way we act don’t read it and write to the BFS fan club where only positive thoughts can be published.
Come back conkerpot please we miss you.
nene was sullys signing sam didnt want him but read brady today it was sam who wanted him she tells so many lies she cant lay in bed straight
Not been one of the bfs out brigade..carefull what you wish for… but what i dont understnad is playing Nolan in the position where Downing has been a revelation this season.. Infact i wouldnt play him at all.. If sam knows more than us all maybe he could explain (fat chance)