Three starts later, with no goals scored, McBenni has been duped into eating his contract after Sullivan coated it in curry sauce and stuffed it inside half a loaf, treating the tubby tosser to his favourite Bunny Chow calorie accumulator.
How much has McBenni cost us? God only knows! He was signed for £2million plus and was on wages in excess of £40,000 per week so the ex Blackburn man has piled on the pounds in every sense of the term since his misguided signing! What a waste! Or actually, what a WAIST!
Come on Stani and all you Zola fans, organise that statue. We could dress McBenni in a Ronald costume - he played as if he was wearing big red clown's feet - and record on the plinth, "He came, he saw and he banqueted!"
A Sullivan signing HF. Zola said he was not in charge of signings. You know this
ReplyDeleteA Sullivan signing on the insistence of Zola as we have proved in the past. Clarke identified him as a target, Sullivan baulked at the fee and wage demands, but Zola pleaded for McBenni to be signed, insisting he was the key to survival. Those are the facts Stani. Man up and accept McBenni was a HUGE Zola blunder!
ReplyDeleteEven if he was a Zola signing (which I dont believe he was) did you think he would be this bad HF? Come on, man up :) No, you didn't.
ReplyDeleteBut tell us about Winston Reid or Pablo Barrera...or the millions Curbishley wasted. There's no comparison, and you call that a huge blunder? Zola kept us up!
Delusional as ever. Zola took over a functional team and made it disfunctional. And I'm not defending Turds so why bring him into the discussion?
ReplyDeleteCheck the facts re McCarthy. You might remember, if you allow yourself too, that the deal stalled over terms. That's when Zola stamped his feet. I've given you the links in the past confirming this. Your selective memory is in overdrive mate!
HF off the topic. Who and when was the last free kick scored for west ham. I can't find the statistic help a fellow hf out
ReplyDeleteGood question! I remember Tristan scoring one. And of course there was the Diamanti scorcher against Birmingham. Was that really the last? Might have been!
ReplyDeleteI remember Hitz's freekick goal in pre-season against Panathinaikos.
ReplyDeleteI was a Zola critic, as you know HF. But I do remember that McBenni was not Zola's choice. It was Sullivan's target and Sullivan's buy. Zola just went along with it. He did not complain too much (or at all).
ReplyDeleteSav, your memory has caught Stani's selective contagion, not surprisingly given you have formed quite an axis since the departure of Zola, the disappearance of Ben Haim and the dropping of Gabbidon - the three individuals that you couldn't see eye to eye over!
ReplyDeleteIt is a matter of record, not memory, that Clarke identified McBenni. Sullivan sourced Mido and Ilan - explaining Zola's reluctance to start Ilan, who he felt, in particular, was foisted upon him. (It also explains why Ilan spoke out against the Italian speaking axis at West Ham!) Gold PERSUADED Sullivan to back Zola and Clarke's judgement and Sullivan entered into negotiations reluctantly. He was delighted when McBenni held out for a high salary and image rights payments and withdrew from negotiations (you may remember if you can get Stani's mutterings out of your head that the deal stalled and Sullivan DENIED that we were signing McCarthy.) Zola then made the case for signing the fat South African, insisting he was the man to save us. Gold backed Zola and Clarke and Sullivan gave in under pressure.
Do a Google search and you will find news articles confirming our initial interest, the deal stalling and Sullivan explaining that McCarthy had been signed at the express request of Zola despite the high wage demands.
Well, that is the impression I had about what happenned. But I stand corrected if the facts are as you say HF.
ReplyDeleteI never thought Zola was the right manager for West Ham. But unfortunately, just when you thought they couldn't do any worse, the go and tie Avram Grant on a long term contract. Go figure!
LOL Fair enough mate. Mind you, Stani is being proved right in the sense that the players are pretty shit. The trouble is, that suggests Turds got more out of them than he should have done - except, of course, that Zola brainlessly parted with Neill, Etherington, Collins and Bowyer. I know you are not a fan of Bowyer - and I loath him as a man - but he scored yet another vital goal at the weekend. I genuinely believe that those four would have given us much better balance last season and that Collins and Etherington would be a shoe in to our current side, with Bowyer a hugely useful alternative from the bench. How much did we collect in transfer fees for that lot? £8million tops. Crazy!
ReplyDeleteAhh, getting upset Sav is agreeing with me HF? :) Sav, show HF some man-love will you, he's feeling left out.
ReplyDeleteZola has said on record that he did not deal with transfers right HF? Add to the mix that you admit Sulli got Mido and Ilan AND the very public argument around Sulli going behind Zola's back to try and sign Dorrens. Remember this? Put that all in to the equation and you tell me who was in charge of signings and who you think would have bought McCrathy?
Plus, it wasn't Zola that gave him the two and a half year deal on silly money was it? Who did that and why? That is what you should criticise.
So we're talking about one signing that Zola was highly unlikely to be involved in, yet you pick it out as criticism? That's why I mentioned Curbishley's signings and Grant's (or Sullivan's)....because if we're comparing transfer market blunders here, there is no comparison!!!!
Sullivan is the kind to give in under pressure? Hahahaaa. That sits well with the way he treated Zola doesn't it? Not!
Sullivan says a lot of things HF, most turn out to be bullsh*t. Of course he's gonna back up himself. Just because Zola stayed silent...probably as a result of the pay-off deal, does not mean everything Sulli now says is the truth.
ReplyDeleteAs for Clarke; you criticised him but look where he is now. Nice clean sheet that last game wasn't it HF?
Your points are pernickety and weak, and the reason is because you are so obsessed with defending the indefensible (Avram Grant) that it leads to this.
And get over this fascination of Zola parting with all these players. You talk as if he done it of his own choice. That simply is not true HF and you know it. The club was in financial shite after Curbishley. I criticise Zola for not fighting the stripping of the squad but he was in a difficult situation as a young manager in his first job. He had no power. In fact, go back to the time around our manager interview process and you will see that it is the whole reason they went for Zola because he would have been the only one to work under these conditions. Donadoni and Mancini were the other two mentioned if I can remember correctly. Dux knew we were in the sh*t and that's why he hired someone that would be happy to coach and work with the youngsters and not say boo.