If the runes are right, by the time the season kicks off we will have shed Kovac, Keane, Bridge, da Costa, Obinna, Dyer, Cole, Parker, Gabbidon, Spector, Green, Barerra, Ba, Hitzlsperger, Faubert, Ilunga, Jacobsen and Upson from last season's squad. So far we have brought in just 2 players, which means that 10 players will be replacing 18 if Sam has got his numbers right. God help us if we suffer any injuries!
Who is lined up to come in? Well da Rosa and O'Brien are on trial and neither fills one with a sense of anticipation! Apart from those, we have been linked with Konchesky and, ludicrously in my opinion, Joe Cole and otherwise, God only knows. There were whispers about Gradel joining from Leeds but nothing has happened there and Mucky-Smith preferred cosy Brighton to bleak midwinter West Ham.
Somehow we are favourites for promotion but on the basis of what exactly? If everybody predicted to leave goes, we have the following team at the moment:
Stech
Spence, Tomkins, Faye, Nobody
Collison, Noble, Nolan, Stanislas,
Piquionne, Sears
I dont know about you but I don't fancy that team to run away with the division. The ONLY cover with first team experience would be Boffin (one game), Boa, Edgar (League Cup as sub), Hines (if he signs a new contract), Nouble, O'Neil (who won't play before Christmas, if ever!) and Reid. That is truly terrifying!
It's all very well saying we will bring in eight players but who are they, how much will they cost and when exactly will they arrive - the season is less than a month away!
14 comments:
I hope the last two buy an one way ticket out to a very distant place.
You've done very well to make it look as bleak as possible. True, we have a thin squad at the moment, but take a minute to have a look at the standard Championship squad, they're about as small as we have at the moment. None of them have much premier league quality or experience in them and everyone is scrambling for freebies.
Barrera has not left. It's a rumour, Zaragoza are interested but for what it's worth, David Gold at least wants to keep him. Allardyce has SUGGESTED the England trio may go, but ONLY if we get the right price.
Assuming the England trio go and the two loanees sign up. By my reckoning this is our squad: -
GK: Stech, Kurucz, Boffin
RB: Spence, Faubert
CB: Tomkins, Faye, Reid, Hernani
LB: Ilunga, Brown
RW: Barrera, Sears
CM: Noble, Collison, Nolan, O'Brien
LW: Stanislas, Boa Morte
ST: Piquionne, Nouble, Hines
In reserve: Fry, McNaughton, Lee, Abdullah, Tombides
I'd say abit of tweaking here and there and it's a pretty decent Championship squad.
Also, Edgar has left.
Edgar has left? It gets worse! Do you honestly think Barerra, Ilunga, Faubert, Cole, Parker and Green will stay? If Allardyce expects them to go, why should we believe they will stay?
Oh how very very true....... It's starting to look worryingly like a repeat of Leeds/Charlton/Norwich et al all the other previous top league teams who, having been relegated could only afford to sell sell sell and not buy buy buy and ended up as also rans for 5,6,7 years before they re-surfaced as worthy premierships contenders again. I hope I am wrong and there is a sudden flurry of decent purchases but it's starting to look like the cupboard is bare of both cash and decent available purchases, but it's looking more like bye bye bye rather than buy buy buy. What was starting to feel like a new exciting chapter for my beloved Hammers is going to be another season last the last two, but just with Division 1 looming as the result.
Edgar has never really shown any promise. It's no loss.
I dont expect Parker, Green and Cole to stay but when did Allardyce say he expects Barrera, Ilunga and Faubert to leave? That's all paper talk.
its always doom and gloom on this site!!! cheer up mate i for one am glad too see the back of all of them who have gone already....i mean really what are you complaing about? did you want them all too say? cause i didn't. there all bad memory's now who remind us of how bad we had become, oh and one final thing why not give sam 10 games before caling him dr evil hey?? belive it or not people catch onto these things you say and although im sure its all harmless fun it is a negative thing too call someone beofre you have even gave them a chance...anyway great blog and COYI
I agree with the previous post - stop being so miserable and negative. Slagging off the new manager with childish names is NOT supporting the Hammers! At least give him a chance...anything must be better than Avram Grant. Who knows we might actually play some games using the width of the pitch again? Need a creative midfielder and a goalscorer, a central defender and a full back or two. also, ship out Boa Morte asap - he's been a headless chicken since the day he joined.
you forget the players that leave are on 30-80k and would struggle in the championship the way they have been playing the past 2 years so why not get rid of the whole lot, infact who have we sold that is any good? ba and hitz had release clauses, upson and dyer were awful, a financial drain and out of contract, kovac and da costa we got decent money for considering their wages and squad status, allardyce didnt rate da costa, to many mistakes, cant speak a word of english, get him out, improves the team. the rest were all out of contract and we kept the best out of contract player in spence aswel as bringing in faye to replace upson/da costa and nolan to replace hitz. yeah some more players will leave (cole, green and parker the most likely) but that will free up 15 million atleast. ilunga and faubert can go aswel, they are not good enough and are on 100k a week between them. the only dissapointed for me is spector didnt agree a new deal but thats about it
That's all very well but you need a team and a squad to win promotion and I can't see one at the moment - and the new season is less than a month away.
funny talking about reality is not supporting the club how deluded are you? do you still buy the sun whilst thinking how terrible those bastards at the NOTW are?I think that HF's name for Fat Sam is far too polite
We're shit broke and destitute we're owned by del boy boycey and we've got a boring manager I'll say again we're shit but I'll be there like always cheering a little whingeing alot because no matter what West Ham are my club
That's poetry Deane!
New poster and Irons fan of ooh some 48 yrs now lads, I think one thing that nobody seems to have touched upon (please correct me if I am wrong) is that Steptoe and son need us to be back in EPL before we move to the OS. For this reason I think they will ensure that Sam get`s what he wants(within reason) to make it happen. After all they will struggle to flog us if we`re still in the fizzypop won`t they? Great blog btw some funny stuff on here. COYI
Cheers Trini. I'm not so sure we have to be back in the Prem for them to make a profit once you factor in the proceeds of redeveloping the Boleyn sadly.
you fail to "factor in" the club will loose £50 million a year by being out of the top league, tv money, prize money, reduced revenue, why would they plan to have 3-5,10 years when they can make sure they do it in one, you forget they got birmingham back up straight away both times they went down using their own methods
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