(Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
David Moyes has spelt it out – he flatly refuses to bring in a striker as cover for just three months!
And the reality is it’s easy to understand why given the dreadful shortage of money in the game.
Ok there are those who will disagree violently but, as now repeated many times, with clubs overall spending just over £3 million each on players in January the situation speaks for itself.
He won’t be moved and speaking to reporters finally made his point in no uncertain terms declaring: “We can’t just bring somebody in because we have a centre forward out and they’ll help cover us for three months until the end of the season!
The recruitment is changing. I want to breed a new West Ham. That has to be, that we do things correctly.
“We are trying not to spend excessive money like we have in the past. What’s going to happen is that a lot of people don’t like change, whatever walk of life it is in.
The small time that we’ve had and the small changes we have made have already made a difference.
“I would hope that most people would look at it and say it is the right way to go. Maybe in a few years people will look at it and say that hasn’t worked so let’s get back to signing players for any amount of money.
“Overpaid, overpriced I don’t think it’s the right way and if you’re a West Ham supporter you’d like to think your club is doing things in a way that will give you a chance to succeed.
The players I want are the ones who want to be here for the long term and are hungry to play for the club. If anything their value will go up rather than down and we end up losing money whenever we bring somebody in.”
ClaretandHugh says: It’s good to hear Moyesie talking in such terms because if anyone believes cash is still as readily available from clubs as it has been in the past they are living in a false reality. The argument about a back up striker will no doubt carry on but let’s be harsh and truthful about this. We didn’t really have one to Mikey Antonio in Seb Haller but it didn’t stop us enjoying a brilliant season. Like most I’ve had enough of seeing so called marquee signing appear at the club and fail big time. Let’s give the Moysie way a chance. Based on what we have seen so far all is well and set to get better.
DM is totally right. He needs to be given time to build what he sees as a long term project. That also inclused getting results from season one, which he has done in a way no one expected. To build an average team to a great team will take time and patience – unless you become another Chelski or City and buy yourslf titles with billions invested from new owners. Even if we get new owners with deep pockets, long gone are the days of spending rediculous money for one player – DM knows that as anyone with half a brain cell, so let DM build and and create a team that will be competing for the tip 4 in a few years max. He’s already got a squad that is competing but I still think a top 7 place will be an excellent finish for his first full season. Forget Man U as he should’ve been given time and forget Sunderland as that role was always going to fail due to the weak infrastructure of the club – let’s face it, any club that sacks a manager like Di Canio because he was too tough on the players is a club that deserves failure. DM is the man to take us forward and he will do just that – COYI
Hugh
I agree with this oft repeated approach of not wasting money on bringing in an endless stream of strikers who are of not of the right quality – it is difficult to identify too many successes among the 50 strikers purchased since Messrs Gold and Sullivan took over!
Where I disagree is that we sold Haller in the first place. Why sell if you have no replacement? Ayaloyan was suggested as a possible reserve but has since gone to Bolton. I do not think Yalmenenko has either the pace or physicality to convert to the role. We should have kept Haller to the summer. Hamstrings are more likely to go when a player is fatigued and Antonio clearly is at present. We have taken an unnecessary risk. There can be no other club in the top flight who has decided to get away with one player up front when the FA Cup and a top league position are there to be challenged for.
I think they took the money and ran Johnny. Whether that was the right thing to do who knows. . There were no guarantees Ajax wouldn’t go elsewhere. I accept the GandS legacy argument but hopefully they have seen their errors and certainly have the right bloke in DM. The upside is – and I get the ‘what about ambition’ argument – we are in no danger. The situation is not critical so we trust the manager to sort things upfront SOMEHOW
I’m in the DM camp here – glad we sold Haller, glad we haven’t splashed a shed load on an old striker. We are safe – rejoice! The summer is the time to recruit. Also, both Liverpool and Man City don’t play a swashbuckling lead the line centre forward – things have changed. Yarmo is not a CF in the old style, but he can hold up, link play and score. So could Lingard or Bowen. We can handle it to get the right player later – and also sign Lingard and Dawson hopefully.
I also agree with the Moyes approach – it will be interesting to see how King does at Everton, Maja at Fulham, the new striker at Palace and also the Senegalese (is he MBiang?) striker at WBA
In Moyes first spell we were both short of a backup striker and also threatened by relegation so we bought Hugill – Moyes was crucified for that so it is not surprising that he has not gone down that route
I remember in Slav’s second season Palace bought Benteke and some fans were saying that we showed a lack of ambition for not getting him ourselves – now I think that most fans would be glad that we didn’t go for him