Well, a very underwhelming deadline day from the Hammers despite Jack Sullivan tweeting that there's a 30 per cent chance his dad can pull off a big deal. We're left hugely reliant on the injury-prone Andy Carroll, with only Maiga and Vaz Te (who doesn't want to play for us) as back-up and neither of them the target man Big Sam requires for his system. Young Elliot Lee is an option but is inexperienced and not a big man either.
It's not as if there were no strikers about — Villa signed the big Czech Kozak, West Brom got Anichebe and Sessegnon, Palace loaned Cameron Jerome, Cardiff found Peter Odemwinjie loitering in their car park, Sunderland loaned Borini and Everton loaned Lukaku. Demba Ba would have been exciting, but was never likely to happen with Arsenal also interested. Not saying all these strikers would suit the Hammers, but the feeling is that if we hadn't blown the wages money on Downing we could have outbid some of these clubs. Downing might be a decent winger but our priorities seem wrong here. Crosses are no use without strikers and WHU already had £9 million Matt Jarvis.
Quite funny that Vaz Te didn't get his move to Norwich. He'll have to eat some humble pie in Ken's Cafe and avoid Big Sam's granite work tops to get his place back. Meanwhile we're stuck scrabbling around for free agents and one rumour is we might even return to Carlton Cole. We didn't always believe in CC and he's not the player he was under Zola, but as a deputy for Carroll he's maybe the best we can find until January.
It's not been a bad window overall with Carroll, Rat, Downing, Whitehead and Adrian arriving to strengthen West Ham, it's just that the squad looks dangerously light up front.
2 comments:
Did we actually strenghthen from last year? Carroll is a record signing, but he was here last season. Adrian won't play ahead of Jussi, and Rat hasn't played a minute in the Prem, even though McCartney, last season's first choice left back, has been injured. Whitehead is 2 seasons away. Which leaves Downing in, and Cole, O'Neill and Hall out, along with the loanees Chamakh, Pogatetz and Wellington.
The belated re-signing of Carlton is an admission of failure, as we were left with only Maiga to cover the injury prone Carroll, and he can't play in the rigid system Big Sam demands. Carlton has signed too late to prevent the loss of 5 eminently achievable points, v Newcastle and Stoke; and the Club are claiming AC will be back for Southampton anyway...
Good points Matt, though Carroll on a permanent deal has to be good. Think Rat will eventually become left-back though Downing is not really necessary if we have Jarvis. So really only one player up, which is a bit worrying when the Saints and co have all been busy.
Post a Comment