NEWSNOWA New Era for West Ham United
It is great news to hear that Dean Ashton should be fit for the game against Man City, The official WHUFC website have said that he had little more than cramp.
But more to what this post is really about, there seems to be something strange about this season and the build up to it, We have made very little in the way of signings, the supporters have been very frustrated more than we have been for years after a decent finish to a season like last season, BG has shown very little interest in the club to what he usually does, BG brought in Gianluca Nani in June to improve the quality of signings to which I haven’t seen any unless we are to believe that Berhami is Nani’s trump card for this season.
Am i worried? am i concerned? the answer is no, for once i think we are making the right moves to secure a better future for our club, and lets be realistic, we are a mediocre club that wants to be better and like any business we have to take one step at a time, this is why i think this could be a new era for us Hammers.
Showboat Larry stick your Grammar up your Khyber Pass you DWEEB. 
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Great week for Olivia2008 with a total of 40 points on week 1
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This post was submitted by Joe J.
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Spot on Joe. I agree, we have to take one step at a time, our club will reach greater heights in the coming years.
Whilst I agree in principle success has to come in a manged and structured way in order to mantain it there is still the threat, unlike most other business if you fail it is that much harder to come back. We are based on asset value and relegaton seriously effects the value of our assets therefore ongoing investment needs to be carried out to protect the existing assets . Yes it would be great to bring on all the young guys and in 3 years have a fantastic home grown squad on low wages competing but we know that as soon as a young lad comes on the chances are his head will be turned by bigger and higher paying clubs so this strategic approach will not be succesful either short or long term, if we really do want to compete against the top four.I also agree we need to balance the books and therefore sell some players that are not going to take us forward and this is my concern. If we had sold Mullins, LBM, Bowyer, Cole, Gabbidon, Pantsil, Lungberg then I would think we had moved forward but instead we gave away lungberg at a huge cost to us, have sold Zamora rather than Cole and what ever you say about effort, a striker is all about scoring and Zamora consisitantly proved more capable of that than Cole, we are now selling Ferdinand.We are left with barely, even when all are fit, a starting 11 of premiership quality yet the plan was to have circa 24 players competing for places. Of course you can not keep throwing money at it but as was evident last year after Christmas, we will not be in the premiership much longer with the squad we have. ( I think we were the lowest goal scorers in the league after january and conceded one of the highest amounts, same period)in my opinion we should therefore be looking to move forward by ensuring a top half finish, in order to achieve that we need quality strikers to compete with Ashton and Bellamy. We need someone in the middle who can create goals, Chelsea have Lampard, Liverpool have Gerrard and man UTD have several, can you really see any WHU player scoring 10 plus goals from midfield this year??We have no premiership cover at left back either so in reality we need 3 quality signings and ship out a few of the not so good. Should ferdinand go for 8million and we invest 25million we would only need to generate circa 10million from the above mentioned players when salaries are considered to balance the books, surely feasible. The new line up would consist of a balance between youth and 15 or so proven professionals that can move the club forward.my three would be Kuyt, Alonso and Maddicks, now we have missed out on Shorey. At a time when liverpool are trying to raise cash we may even get Kuyt and Alonso for a combined fee of 20million. lets not forget we get 35million from SKY and nobody ever said investing in a football club would make you money.Â
I think both David’s and Aussiehammers comments are good, but Aussie created more food for thought which makes sense.Although I was a bit saddened with Freddies departure, with the figure mentioned of 6 mil in his pocket was outrageous at first, until the calculations of his wages in comparison to his playing time/goals was presented somewhere on the net. When running a business, which in case you have’nt noticed football has become, the investment was not working, so I guess it was a reasonable move. HOWEVER, I to do not agree with the selling of Zamora AND Pantsil was a mistake. Pantsil did not get much of a chance to prove himself, and watching him in all the games he played for his country in the ANC, I am of the opinion that AC was wrong not to give him the opportunity. As for Zamora, I also am disappointed at his departure. Ferdinand, admittedly not that much. I do not like tho several occasions he just shoots the ball out of play rather than creating oportunities like other highly rated defenders do. I am of the opinion that Anton has been over-rated. Id rather play Davenport, who I believe was one of our few good players on Saturday.Speaking of Saturday. is it me or are there other poeple out there who think our performance, especally in the second half was pathetic? The Latics should have wrapped up the game, to our disappintment, way into the second half. SO many mistakes, especially in midfield, saw a repitition of some of the most absurd football we played last season. Where are the tactics, where is the free flowing football? It’s been replaced with people trying to impress personally and mistakes galore. How can we ever compete with teams in our level, let alone the top 4 clubs. I was very unhappy with our initial performance, as with that kind of play only luck can get us anywhere near a mid table position.As for new signings, again another disappointment. Teams in the Premiership need to make a good balance of good signings, and sales. Our balance does not show this. Outs outweigh the ins which is not a good sign. True, there is the ground investment to take in consideration, and the wage bills, but one has to assess the wage bill and the players that command this, against the effectiveness of these signings. Which brings us to our number one, AC. I am seriously concerned about the people he has brought into the club. No use having good names if these players are plagued with injuries. Just lookat our injury list. and assess who was brought in by AC. There was even talk of Louis Saha this summer, another injury prone casualty. Whay have we become, the retreat home of players past their sell-by date? Some argue that AC wants to bring the club to top flight status, challenging the top 4. Frankly I can not see that this can happen, not with AC anyway. What success did he bring to Charlton, can anyone please enlighten me. I think he is capable of keeping us in the premiership, but that’s just about it. If we want to move forward, we have to look elswhere. I also think that players opt to go to other clubs because of him too and not because of the club, which is a shame. It seems like he cannot attract quality players.Phew, I’ve let some bad air out havent I? But sorry guys, I’ve been supporting the hammers for 41 years and it’s either my age but I have not been so disappointed with the performance of the club for some time now, and I really want to see a change for the better! We deserve this, as the most loyal supporters of one of the great clubs in the UK.
BG get ur money out
Aussihammer In a nutshell could’nt agree more .There is allways a lot of talk about top flight players coming to West Ham to improve the squad ,its getting late where are they ?If they sell Ferdinand to Sunderland for 8 million ,l hope they dont buy some wll known player who has passed his sell by date.
Cyprushammer. Â Â Â Â
Well put aussihammer, i cudnt agree more
Aussihammer, you have said quite eloquently everything I feel about our situation at the moment, great post! Basically we stand on the threshold of a really good season and the opportunity to move forward, but without the transfer housekeeping you have mentioned we may find ourselves at the wrong end of the table. If we want to progress we have to show everyone that we are ambitious otherwise the young players will leave to win things (as before) and we will not be able to attract new talent.
Bob, I agree with everything you’ve said. We are half way through the so called 5 year plan and it isn’t going to be met alone by bringing in the kids for the future. The 1st team squad is light and must be strengthened. I don’t yet see what difference Nani has made and positions such as his for me need to make an immediate impact. There are 12 days left in this transfer window and if we do not fill the positions needing strengthening we will not finish in the top half. We are too relaint on injury prone players, just look at the panic Ashton’s cramp induced in our ranks. I hard that Collins and Quashie are on their way back and playing a game behind doors today; now why does that not feel like new signings. A club’s continued ambition is shown by its investment in its most valuable assets, ie its players and should we not make any more investment this year BG’s ambition would be questionnable to me as the 5 year plan will not be met as is.
i might not agree with the signings you suggested aussihammer, but i agree with everything else, the fact is that money must be spent and some serious thought on previous transfers and some lessons learned from those. as much as freddie enjoyed his golden handshake, that mistake has cost us 1-2 good quality signings – all for someone who was simply the poster boy for disappointment impending. clearly past it, clearly injury prone etc.any fan that says we’re pushing forward because we haven’t spent money is clearly deluded and wearing the claret and blue tinted sunglasses with the blinkers on. the point is, what we’ve got is the bare bones of a squad – majority of which that aren’t even premiership standard. give anton to spurs for all i care, he’s the last of the nasty contingent that was the bentley brigade – who’s rode his own reputation into the ground with lackluster displays and terrible off the pitch conduct.davenport isn’t good enough, nigel quashie should be manager [/sarcasm] – i could go on and on but it’s all everyone seems to be saying and moaning about and presenting no solution. curbishley cant attract big name players but those aren’t what we want or need. we need players with heart and fight and a desire to wear claret and blue.if they could finalize the cavani deal – and nani could earn his money instead of resting on his laurels with behrami in the bag and bring in several other foreign players before the window closes we could have a fantastic season with the mixture of home grown youth and experience that we’ve already got got. without those new additions i think we’re going to have a headache of a season.but then again we’re west ham fans for a reason ;]
Sorry, but this is possibly the worst thread I’ve read for a long time ! As it stands, with current squad and managerial structure, reckon we’re on course for about a 12th spot finish. I reckon we should be looking at Aston Villa and Portsmouth as the kind of clubs we should be progressing along with, and I reckon in both cases they are develpoing as European contenders at a quicker rate than us.Bottom line is we need another left back, a creative midfielder and another forward. BG must be the poorest or the most uninterested or tight fisted billionaire on the planet, and I personally believe he doesnt trust Curbs with the big money signings. On the subject of Curbs, we just aint ever going to sign anyone half decent because the blokes one of the most uninspiring, dispassionate and tactically unaware managers going. The whole training philosophy is based around ” run, run and run somemore, and oh and by the way I’ve scribbled down some tactics down on that board over there”.