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Comments
We lose plenty when we take Bowen from his normal position. He's not a center forward and that applies even more to Yarmo who is a one trick pony at best and plain pony at worst
If gold and Sullivan had wanted to take the club forwards they could have bought players but it is clear they are only ever in it for financial gain.
All they ever do is make noise and false promises. How many players were we linked to? Just noise.
They want to sell Rice and I feel they will sell in the summer and then surely it can’t be too long before they sell the club and they will have done very nicely.
The 'bids' we made would suggest a minimum of £50m, but those were for players that were never going to be sold for £50m, which supports Simon Jordan's point around 'phantom bids'. May as well have offered £100m for Haaland because a) it won't be accepted and b) the player wouldn't come here. It's easy to throw money at impossible deals.
The fact that we wouldn't pay £15m for Caleta-Car, on paper an ideal replacement for Ogbonna and, let's face it, cheap in the current market, makes me think that the actual budget was a lot less than we were lead to believe. Add that to Moyes' reluctance to sign anyone he doesn't deem as perfect and it becomes a lot clearer as to why nothing happened.
I also think there's a power battle at play. Ex has said that a number of players were offered to Moyes by Sullivan that the manager turned down, and Sullivan was evidently not prepared to pay for the players that Moyes actually wanted, hence the stalemate.
I do admire Moyes stance of not just taking anyone (Sullivan has bragged in the past about bullying manager's into taking players), but that only really works if the board are prepared to then back him in getting who he does want, which they're demonstrably not. What I think we've seen is partly the result of two stubborn men refusing to compromise, to the detriment of the squad.
Mr Newman tell us about how you will approach the job , your network , plans etc.
“Well I don’t really do much and really just like going on holiday”
Ok the jobs yours we don’t really want to spend any money .
Personally blame dithering Moyes as much as the owners…
He’s been around long enough and sadly had the same bad reputation before, his hesitancy and our owners don’t exactly leave us with lots of hope, and I know we’ve made some great signings in last few seasons ( Bowen / Soucek ) etc, but no striker in is a shocker….
Guess Summer will be the true answer as many players will be leaving and we will probably by then will need around 5-6 players in unless he thinks the younger players are ready to step up…
Just another missed opportunity to press on for me…
As for the development squad I think Cottee was the last striker we brought through from the ranks so I don’t hold out a lot of hope from that direction.
We just have to suck it and see how the rest of this season pans out and hope Antonio starts clicking again. I know he looks shot for parts of the games but it doesn’t seem to bother him with Jamaica although I suppose the pace and intensity is a lot less. I think most of his problems stem from his hardly scoring since the first dozen games or so and he tries too hard to get in on the act hence he shoots when players are in better positions.
But it's far from the end of the world. The players we have done so well over the last season and a half and I think they'll continue to do well.
I know people are saying 'this is our chance to push on etc'. Well, every team in the league feels the same except city.
Liverpool and Chelsea might have closed the gap if they'd made some great signings.
Spurs, Arsenal and Man United might have given themselves a great chance of securing top four with good business.
Wolves and Brighton might have forced themselves into the mix.
Palace, Leicester, Villa and Southampton might have boosted European chances.
Etc etc
Everybody has something to play for and everybody could be better. It isn't just a West Ham problem. West Ham finished 6th last season and have been 4th or 5th all of this season.
We're a long way from the team that needs the most improving.
But protests?? Haven’t they got anything better to do, that’s crazy IMO
I get the disappointment and frustration around this last window, it does seem pretty obvious that we needed reinforcements but for whatever reason it didn’t happen but it’s done now and maybe we should put our angst to bed and get on with enjoying the rest of what could still be a great season for us.It might all go horribly wrong but that’s what supporting West Ham is about isn’t it? Otherwise surely we’d be supporting Man. City.
But my frustration, and yes, there's still some anger there, is that I feel like we haven't capitalised on that, either in the summer and especially in January.
The first team is still very good, but we're trusting to luck that Antonio rediscovers his early season form and Zouma stays fit. Without those I think we're going to struggle for the rest of the season. Throw in the dip in quality if Cresswell is missing, and the lack of trust that Moyes has in certain players, and squad wise I think we're very short of where we need to be to compete on three fronts.
I dearly hope I'm wrong and we get top six and maybe win the EL or FA Cup, but with the squad we have, I don't think we we'll end up close to any of that. Fatigue, injuries and a lack of options will catch up with us and I think we'll end up 8th or 9th. In itself, not the end of the world, but it's the knock-on effect; our better players, having experienced European football might want out. The players Moyes wants might not want to come to a club without European football.
All conjecture of course and we'll know by May whether my fears were misplaced, but the good times that you've described alderz, we all want to continue. And we had an opportunity last month to make it more likely, but didn't.
That said, as the great Brian Clough once said... “We talk about it for 20 minutes and then we decide I was right”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-10467287/West-Hams-failure-sign-January-left-season-risk-COLLAPSE.html
This makes for an interesting read.