So we’ve made two signings at last, Mexican winger Pablo Barrera for £4 million and striker Frederic Piquionne for around £1 million.
We certainly need a winger rather than four central players trying to play a diamond, and Barrera had an impressive World cup when coming on for Mexico as a sub. Although it’s always risky buying players who’ve impressed in a World Cup as they came at inflated prices and often coast afterwards (remember Two Bob Florin and Ilie Dumitrescu, who were fantastic for Romania but not for us).
Another worry is that south Amercian players often find it difficult to settle in the UK; ie Javier Margas, Luis Jiminez and at Man City Robinho.
Piquionne scored 11 goals in all competitions for Portsmouth last season and looked impressive up front, although as Big Joe points out only five of them came in the league. But despite being 31 he looks a reasonably reliable striker to back up Cole and compete with Benni the pie-eater.
Looks like we might get Ben Haim too. A good player at Bolton but lost his way at Man City, Chelsea and Pompey so not sure about that one. And he’s a centre-back so we still need a right-back, unless we’re building a team around Spector. We should never have sold John Paintsil…
4 comments:
Big Joe emails:
"Good to see we've excelled ourselves by buying a player who's looking to move on before he's arrived and losing the young centre forward from Nice that's reputed to be the next Thierry Henry, while settling for the 31-year-old old knacker from Lyon (5 from 30+ games
in the Premier League last season). He's quoted on one website as 'Emile Heskey without the goal scoring ability'.
At least we've someone to make McCarthy look good.
The new season can't arrive soon enough. And all the Portsmouth fans seem to be laughing at us for even thinking about Ben Haim.
Worryingly, it is possible Piquionne will be a replacement for Carlton, if reports that he is off to stoke for £8 million are true. if have become a selling club to the likes of Stoke I shall truly despair. And if Ben Haim arrives that surely means Upson is leaving (and he was officially the third best England player at the World Cup, according to the Capello index, behind Gerrard and Terry.
It was reported that we offered the highest salary package to Joey Cole, but I have my doubts.
Yes, it's claimed we were offering Joey Cole 90k a week. Perhaps this was in the knowledge that he'd never sign for us! You wonder where Gold and Sullivan are finding the cash from… I suspect they have more in the pot than they've let on.
Upson is a good player but had a poor season last time round, so wouldn't be heartbroken to lose him, but all would depend on the quality of replacements. And Ben Haim won't be good enough. Can't see any point in selling Carlton unless we get the Nice wonderkid.
Hello,
Katy here from Biteback Publishing. On 19 Aug we’re publishing An Irrational Hatred of Luton. Originally published in 1995, An Irrational Hatred of Luton fast became a cult classic amongst Hammers and football fans in general. Spanning twenty years of matches home and away, it contains some of the most sublime writing on football and the irrational nature of fandom ever committed to paper.
To give you more of an idea of what the book is about, here’s a small extract from our press release which will be circulated to all the national media outlets:
“Laugh out loud funny, and almost devastatingly poignant, An Irrational Hatred of Luton is an odyssey through the world of a committed football supporter. A real-life Fever Pitch, and with a Hornby-esque deftness of tone, Banks’ book shows how intricately in the life of a true fan, football interconnects with the everyday. Banks’ friendships, relationships, work, emotions of joy and despair all take place against a backdrop of claret and blue.”
It's expected to garner a lot of interest and I was hoping to have a chat and see if it's possible to arrange a review, competition, or some way in which we can promote to title to the readers of Hammers in the Heart?
All the best,
Katy
---------
Katy Scholes
Sales and Marketing Assistant
Biteback Publishing,
375 Kennington Lane,
London.
SE11 5QY
T: 0207 0911 260
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