If Manchester United and Liverpool are genuinely willing to offer £20m for Cole, then how crazy is it that we cannot afford to accept it because, to do so, would spell certain relegation? I am a huge admirer of Cole but is he really worth £20m? Go back 12 months and we would have all said cash in if an offer of £10m had been received. He has undoubtedly improved but has he improved that much?
Had we had alternatives in the squad, the sensible thing to do would be to sell and use the money to buy three Premiership quality players. But with no options, the bulk of the money - even if Zola was allowed to spend it - would have to go on funding the purchase of two strikers anyway and as they would not come from inside the Prem, what guarantee would we have that they would succeed? We are after this Chamakh guy but do any of us know how good he is? I'm happy to admit that I have no idea! So what would we gain from selling Cole? We move on a guy who we know can play in the Prem and gamble on two we are unsure of. Not sensible in my opinion.
Of course, the signings of Green and Cole (heavily criticised by Curbishley when he joined) show the right way to run a club like West Ham. We shouldn't be splashing out huge sums on kids like Savio or crocks like Dyer, we should be buying "value", like Behrami and Ilunga, and we should have a squad big enough to allow us to take silly offers when the big boys get desperate. Is Cole worth £20m? No. Can we afford to sell him? No. That is stupid! Pardew got it right - look at the profit we showed when we moved on Harewood, Reo-Coker, Onecapchesky, Etherington, Zamora, Paintsil and Collins; and I have probably forgotten somebody! No, Tevez doesn't count!
Mind you, if I was Cole, I wouldn't want to join Liverpool or United ahead of the World Cup. There is a real danger that, like Heskey, he will find himself on the subs bench most of the time. Of course a move to one of the glamour clubs will have appeal but Zola should remind him of his time at Chelsea. Watching England last night, Cole could be in the team in South Africa - but to be there, he needs lots of games in the Prem. And if he stays fit, he is guaranteed games at West Ham because we don't have an alternative!
Cole would be crazy to go. Look at what happened to Mark Bosnich. One of the best goalkeepers in the world at his peak & we never saw the best of him. Then the realisation of what he had done set in. Tevez, not the player he was with us & now talking of retirement. Don't go Carlton.
ReplyDeleteHmmm but is Tevez serious? Think that was taken out of context personally! I agree Cole would be mad to go. But if Liverpool sold Torres or he was ruled out for the rest of the season? Then I would definitely go to Liverpool if I was Cole. The support his receives from Hammers fans is decidely luke warm!
ReplyDeleteWe can still sell him in the summer for that much, especially if he is on the plane. Fact is there arent too many target men around in their prime. Liverpool are skint though and will probably settle on Kevin Davies or the like.
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