How many times have we read that headline over the last 6 or 7 months? One day it is Balotelli, soon to be the subject of an £18m bid from Arsenal apparently, the next it is Toni, and the day after it is Chamakh. The fact that we don't have any money is not even the most significant obstacle standing in our way of signing any one of these three, a more significant factor still is that, outside of our own imaginations, we are a relatively insignificant club that no self respecting European based striker is in the least bit interested in joining.
Tell me, why would they want to move to West Ham? Imagine the hard sell from Zola and Duxbury: "We can guarantee you first team football and ... and ... and ... we hope to be able to pay your wages, especially if we are bought by anybody this side of bankruptcy, which remains a possibility, and ... and ... and if you do well, we could sell you to Tottenham or Arsenal!"
Where are these rumours coming from? Well the press need to fill up their papers and we bloggers need something to write about and Duxbury, well he is happy to see the fans fooled so they don't start calling for his head! Of the three, I think Toni is the only slight possibility, signed on a loan deal where we pay a proportion of his salary, so removing a malcontent from the Bayern dressing room. That deal might just stack up and suit all three parties. But are we close to landing this big fish? As close as Ahab got to Moby Dick in all probability. I just hope that the good ship West Ham doesn't go down with all hands, like the poor old Pequod.
But hang on, one guy did escape to tell the tale, clinging hold to a coffin until he was rescued. Call me Ishmael? No, call him Scott Duxbury!
And this is why I feel for Zola a bit HF. Some people say we should sack him but who are we going to get that is going to work this well (style of play) under these tough circumstances?
ReplyDeleteIn some ways, I think we're lucky to have him and Clarke. I hope it works out for them, in a personal sense.
You may be right to feel sympathy for him Stani but he hasn't helped himself in my opinion. He is too much of a lap dog to Duxbury and Nani. I can't imagine many managers accepting the sale of Collins in the way Zola did. When you accept the unacceptable, you betray the rest of the squad and the fans. Let's face it, Redknapp made a stand over the sale of Ferdinand and ultimately that cost him his job, Pardew fell out of love with West Ham when the Argies were brought in over his head and Turds walked when he lost control of who was bought and sold. You can't manage if you can't decide who you want to retain and who you want to sell. Zola should draw a line and say, I'm off if you sell any of my first team.
ReplyDeleteIt's his first big job HF and he hasn't anything behind him to bargain with. Even if he had made such a stand, we would have been left without a manager and would probably have ended up getting someone not as good.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine the Collins decision being easy for him but we were desperately short up front and very close to landing Chamakh. I think this would have influenced Zola's sale of Collins more than any demands from Nani/Dux. What obviously makes the sale look worse is the fact that we didn't land Chamakh.
Who says we were close to landing Chamakh? He had turned us down before Collins was sold. You are buying Duxbury's spin mate! You'll be saying that we were expecting Ashton back next!
ReplyDeleteBuying Duxbury's spin? You don't know my opinion of the man mate! You could have sworn at me and I would have taken it more kindly.
ReplyDeleteBBC and Sky reported that we were going to go in late in the window for Chamakh again but the deal was subject to Collins' sale. Yes it eventually didn't happen that way because Chamkah said no again but Zola still sold in the hope of spending the money on a striker.
That's my understanding, yes he turned us down before Collins was sold but we went in again after the sale of Collins and he turned us down again.
My opinion had nothing to do with what Duxbury said, in fact, I dont even re-call him talking about the Chamakh deal, not that I'd pay any attention to him.