So Crouch goes to Spurs, and it appears Bent goes to Sunderland; I think we could have used him. Still no decent strikers linked with the Hammers.
With Eto'o and Hleb both going to Inter Milan could this pave the way for Mancini to join us? Ibrahimovic created a space for Eto'o but how will Mancini feel about Inter looking elswhere for a winger? He has stated (albeit on only one website) that he wants to stay at Inter and fight for a place, but I wonder if Helb's arrival will force him to reconsider. Further to this how much should we really be concentrating on signing another midfielder? Strikers please Mr Nani.
In this Times article there is a snippet at the bottom regarding the absence of Behrami and Ashton from the Asia Trophy squad. Full article here, it's mostly about Neill's "should I stay or should I go" conundrum. The snippet I referred to above follows: So Deano is working with his own physio, which I think is already common knowledge. But there has of course been the hype about the likes of Hull, Stoke etc. being interested. Duxbury has been very quiet since stating we want to keep Ashton, so I think it would be good for him to confirm or deny such rumours. Personally I think it would be madness for another club to gamble even £5m on a player who has barely played in the last two seasons, so I think it's still best to take most of these articles with a large pinch of salt.
Luis Boa Morte possibly out for 6 months so u guys will need another striker http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/w/west_ham_utd/8174512.stm
Hammers favourites to sign Neill I said to some friends before the summer that Lucas Neill was not worth as much as he thought on the open market. The perception seems that Neill will go where the money is so if he is resigning with us, our reduced offer is still more than he'll get in Turkey or elsewhere in England.
Latest news according to his agent/club Luca Toni is definately coming/not coming to West Ham - who incidently are/are not being taken over by an American after the icelandic holding company is/is not going out of business. I hope that has cleared up any misunderstanding or lack of clarity in the current situation.
??? He has a scoring record only parralled by a handful of strikers over the last 5-6 years. (135 goals in 200 matches in league play) He's also 32, makes 5.5 mil a year, and has had a chronic achilles problem for the last 6 months. Would be an interesting move for both parties.
Oh the older and more injury prone the better, we need someone to take the place of David Di Michele and Diego Tristan.
He's gone back to Italy to see a specialist on his achilles, which has kept him out the entire training camp and first bothered him in January. He hasn't trained once all summer. I don't see the move happening unless you guys really take a chance. Achilles injuries are no joke....ask Sagnol.
Comments from agents are always a good indication of what might happen. There is, however, one tiny flaw in that article. As I understand it and contrary to alot of press reports, Jose Alberti is not Toni's agent!! As attractive as an injured, unfit 32 year old is, I can't see this move happening somehow.
Good to read Duxbury´s comments on transfers on club´s website. "No need to sell anyone" etc. So, in other words Upson would stay?
i think/hope/feel we'll keep hold of upson. we all knew that bellamy was little more than a mercenary. upson has a lot more class...and he made the latest england squad. surely if he performs well this year he'll have a shot at the WC squad.
the latest from KUMB: i loved his grit and bite last season and considering parker's frailty, it's nice to have some more bodies-- even if the squad is 3/4 midfielders also states that savio is 'struggling' and the sale of upson could well be in the cards at around 12.5 mil (they're throwing money around; surely we could get more?)-- freeing up some coin to buy a striker, one of: toni, ruud or eidjur. i'm not sure which of the three i'd want the most. toni would be last due to fitness...gudjohnson would be a nice fit and is 31 but ruud is such a good poacher...but just turned 33.
I thought Kovac looked quite accomplished when he first joined us. But as time went on he started making some elementary errors, to the point where he couldn't pass the ball 10 yards in a straight line. So naturally I was as surprised as most when he popped up and scored that screamer at Everton. But nevertheless he needs to sort his game out if he has joined us. If that is how he performs when he is trying to win himself a permanent contract what will he be like after he has signed it? Also I suppose that puts the seal on us not signing Mancini.
I'd forgotten Savio existed. Thus far, Stanislas looks a better prospect than him and Stanislas cost us nothing.