Firstly, let's give Jordan Hugill a chance. It's not his fault if the club has messed up more high-profile targets like Slimani and Smolov. No-one has heard of our £8m signing, but he's certainly going to have a better attitude than some of our stars, having come into the game late. He played non-league football before joining Port Vale and then Preston. Indeed, he worked as a barman at the Dickens Inn in Middlesbrough while turning out for Marske United, so if it doesn't work out he might be useful on the concourse beer stands.
Moyes used to manage Preston so presumably has kept a close eye on their players. At Everton he signed unknown Seamus Coleman from Sligo Rovers for £60,000 so we have to hope he has done his homework here. Looking at Hugill's signing-on video he seems genuinely pleased to be in the Premier League. He's netted ten times for Preston this season but is presumably intended to take the weight off Arnautovic through his strength. Jamie Redknapp for one thinks Hugill will run all day and might surprise a few people. And he'll make team Hugills a lot easier.
The big disappointment has been missing out on a defensive midfielder. Not least Anderlecht's Leander Dendoncker, who sounds like something you might find on the shelves of an Ann Summers store. Shelvey could have offered something different too. But Joao Mario looks a decent loan signing on Tuesday's evidence and gives us a Lanzini alternative. Moyes has been saying for weeks that it's a bad time to buy so mass signings were never likely, although only two in is certainly underwhelming.
As for departures the club had no choice but to sell Sakho, Yes he's a good player but he so clearly wanted to leave that his presence must have been affecting morale. And do we want to keep a player who doesn't celebrate scoring? It's risky to have sold Ayew to a Premier League rival for £18m (rising to £20m with add-ons), but frankly I never thought we'd get our money back on him. Ayew has scored the odd goal but has never really convinced as either a winger or striker and it's a good price for a squad player. We now have to hope Antonio and Arnautovic return quickly.
Finally the increasingly circus-like atmosphere has seen director of transfers Tony Henry rightly suspended after a leaked email in the Daily Mail showed him allegedly saying that the club doesn't want to sign any more African players, and later telling the Mail this was because they have a "bad attitude" and "cause mayhem". Well no, players have a bad attitude because of their personality not their race. If this is true, then he has to go. Nurse, the screens.
5 comments:
Think this is too way soft on the Board at the end of a transfer window that's seen our Club dragged into the gutter, and alienated six of our players. That's five poor transfer windows in a row. And what's the point being pleased at getting "good money" on a player if it's not spent on new players? We're £20 million up despite having 12 players injured or suspended. Well, how does that benefit you and me? We're not getting a reduction on our season tickets. That £20 million has joined the money from flogging the Boleyn and the cash from the ultra lucrative new TV deal in not being spent on the team. Where's the money gone?
Hi Pete,
I agree with you on Hugill, its a calculated gamble based on Moyes PNE history hopefully, and I am warming to Moyes and the way he manages, not playing Antonio for being persistently late sends out a good message in my book, I am far happier with players working hard on both the pitch and training ground as they now appear to be.
As ever its going to be a nail biting finish to the season, but we should try to build a quality squad going forward, sad to see Ayew leave but he only just did the business and getting the 20 m back is good for the future.
Yes its is disappointing when Henry makes comments as he did, I can only imagine that sadly his philosophy came from comments in the boardroom. They do seem naive at best and downright idiots at worst.
Anyway all we can do is debate and support the team on the pitch as ever. COYI
I'm not sure Ayew would have done that much to keep us up and it seems he wanted to go. The club felt that they had Deodoncker signing sewn up only for Anderlecht to change their mind, in which case Ayew money would have been used. Though agree it's inept not to get a defensive midfielder at all. But some progress in that we have an alternative to Lanzini in Mario and an alternative to Carroll in Hugill, if he's any good. Biggest problem at the club is lack of any long-term strategy in signings.
More comments on the racism issue on blog today, which is deeply embarrassing and has alienated Kouyate and most of the team...
Remarkable how when these last-minute signings fall through it is always the other club's fault - see also Carvalho in August and so many other times when it definitely wasn't West Ham's fault. But if they did their business earlier in the window, they'd have other options when deals collapse. And I can't see why they needed to sell Ayew to fund Deodoncker - they've got the TV money, the cash from flogging the Bolyen, they're selling 60,000 tickets a week, they are the 17th richest club in the world. However, while we won't be seeing this Deodoncker in the shirt, we've seen very many Deodonkies in the past - often signed by this Board.
Yes, I suspect it's fifty per cent Sullivan trying to buy on the cheap and fifty per cent it being a really difficult time to buy. I think Ayew went because he wanted to leave and Swansea made a good offer. Presumably Moyes didn't rate him and felt he had Antonio, Arnautovic, Hernandez and Hugill for the rest of the season as forward options, plus Mario and Lanzini behind a striker. Would have liked Dendoncker (misspelt it before being a bit of a Dendoncker) just for his name...
Post a Comment