Issa Diop has gone, Nikola Vlasic is going and as believed since towards the end of last season it will be no surprise to see Said Benrahma exiting the club.
At a time when squad numbers given our European involvement is concerned surely need to be maintained, at the very least these are surprising developments.
Hopefully they will be replaced but with three weeks of the window left it looks as though it could be a tough call and fans reaction may be summed up in a couple of quotes on the CandH Facebook Group,
Regular comtributor The Cat says: “My sole focus is only on West Ham but I begin to wonder how other clubs manage their “misfits”, because they naturally have them too.
I think that the problem must be that with the Premier League being the highest paying league, everywhere else is a step-down and recouping the transfer fees can be impossible outside of the top clubs in Europe.
However Hammerpete6 commenting said: “Vlasic, like Diop and to an extent Benrahma, have all been victims of David Moyes poor man-management.
He openly plays a core of players and makes it clear to those not in the core that they are not wanted. He has had short term success with this, but core players finished the season worn out, and by the look of the pre-season have not recovered.
Meanwhile, several are out or on the way, and yet again he does not effectively sub when we were struggling even though more are allowed. We are in peril here.
I think Hammerpete6 has got a very good point. Perhaps David Moyes would do well to read his comment which, for me, could well be spot on!
Although we didn’t play too well against Citeh, the reasons for this are well known to us all. What didn’t happen against Citeh, was us receiving a right royal spanking. They also changed the way that they normally play, which is a compliment to the team and manager that we have. So I don’t see it as a toys-out-of-the-pram moment for us.
Leading up to this window (started during the previous one), Moyes made it clear that there would be much movement in and out of the club. So with that massive clue, we also need to turn our attention to the chairmen, to figure out what has been going on.
Moyes is the Best manager that this club has had since John Lyall, so I don’t see it as a moment to jump all over him or become overly critical. Diop and Vlasic were ALWAYS going to leave, but where are their replacements? There is a list somewhere and I understand that we will not be fully up to speed with the latest. I feel that we LACK creativity in the middle of the park behind Scamacca (he deserves creativity around him), a proper left-back (so we can release Cornet), a centre-half who IS up to the job plus another striker would be Fantastic.
GSbK… GET IT DONE!
Best manager since Lyall depends on him building a team fpr me
It’s easy being flippant, but who since John Lyall would you rate higher than Moyes? (cupped ear LOL)
Not flippant to ask him to build squads as John did . Too early to be effusive or make such a comparison in my view
We all have our views and opinions I guess. But I do hope that my views aren’t marked for special attention though.
Good God. For heaven’s sake. I look at all comments. And delete only those that are obscene as we are a family site. Yours are no more marked than anyone eles’s and I am allowed to share views when I find them interest either pro or anti. Please stop this !
Could not agree more. Some fans are obsessed with Moyes, but to me he is a man who took Everton to the next level, but could not either move them above that level, nor maintain it. The core of Moyes team tends to contain old men. A small core is easy to deal with, you know them and they know you, but it is so narrow a view. Wonder how much the Italian national side would take as compensation for Claudio Ranieri ?
I’ll reserve judgement until end of transfer window. The players going or about to go haven’t performed consistently at the level required so can understand why they going.
Replacements needed of course but you need to clear decks first in case you get stuck with the underperformed.
Look at Man U, they have kept the underperformers and now can’t get rid of them easily. Arsenal had a clear out and are now stronger. I just hope the management team can recruit players that improve the squad!
Difficult to disagree unless replacements are imminent.
Completely agree with the Cat’s assessment, if you have a big squad it requires rotation if you want to keep most of the players happy. When players are regular subs but only given 10 or 15 minutes to make an impact it is a big ask, Benrahma on stats alone showed he did that but couldn’t break into the squad, his creativity will be missed, he is one of the few players we have that releases the ball early and makes things happen, sometimes that doesnt pay off at other times it provides us goals, I would be interested to see how many times him losing possession led to goals against I can’t think of many, so it asks a question on whether we should accept it, he was also nearly always played out of position, Moyes preferring Lanzini at 10.
O the subject of the post Vlasic is like Kral not going to be played Diop and Benrahma did get games especially in the cups, we were light efore the window started and are even lighter now , it reminds me of what Bielse said to the owners when he was interviewed for the job, that there was only one player in the squad he would keep, the rest need replacing (slightly different squad now but we do need a lot of quality to be bought in). The chairmen are going to have to bite the bullet and pay better, am sure financially we could have got Zielinski who would have solved our attacking midfield problem, same with Lingard, Onana possibly although another West Ham site says that he said West Ham was his preferred choice although they wouldn’t guarantee him a starting place, Everton did, which is consistent with his sisters quote on not conducive to player development, either way no one should be guaranteed a starting spot you need to earn it.
Let’s hope some of these players like Arthur Melo, Kiehler, Sosa can be persuaded to come Sosa looks interesting as does Grimaldo although things have gone quiet there recently, there are still some great players like Ludoviv Adjorques, Martin Terrier etc that we could bring in, we just need to push the boat out, the clock is ticking, we need LB, CB, DM, AM, RW and another striker to be at minimum strength, less than that and we are still well light, Moyes wants first team improvements so that is going to probably be another £150m am not sure I see that coming tbh
Everybody here are forgeting that Benrahma was the best championship player when Sullivan signed him. Moyes ia classless with him he dont deserves to have such a talented player