Jimmy Jimmy!

Interesting to see former Hammer (though he never played a game for us) Jimmy Bullard saying "F••k!" 30 times during the Bush Tucker Trial on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! He played for West Ham from 1999-2001 under Harry Redknapp, having been signed from Gravesend. Once saw him training with Paolo Di Canio, Lampard, Ferdinand, Carrick, Defoe and co and thought he looked a good player even then. He went on to have a fine career with Peterborough, Wigan and Fulham and is definitely one we missed out on. His cheeky personality would have gone down well with the fans too. Actually, he coped pretty well with the underwater lizards, crabs and snakes and won four stars. Makes you wonder what he must have encountered in the portacabins at Chadwell Heath…

30 seconds

Oh well, at least we kept them out for 30 seconds…

Are you experienced?

Could it be our good start is through signing experienced Premier League players? Southampton spent £12m on Gaston Ramirez, a Uruguayan striker who had never played in England, £6m on Jay Rodriguez from Burnley and £2.6m on Nathaniel Clyne from Crystal Palace, both of whom had only played at Championship level. They also signed Japanese centre back Yoshida for £2.3m and Zambian forward Mayuka for £3.25m.  A strange combination of nationalities  — South American players like WHU's Jiminez and Barrera often have problems adapting to British football — and inexperience.

Reading singed Championship players like Robson-Kanu and although QPR opted for PL experience in Zamora, Cisse, Rob Green and Park they also signed several players who had never performed in England such as Brazil's Julio Cesar, Granero from Real Madrid, Mbia from Marseille and Diakite from Nancy.

In contrast Big Sam has opted for proven Premier League performers with more experience than Jimi Hendrix. We already had Taylor and Nolan last season. This summer West Have signed Jussi Jaaskelainen who has played for more than a decade in the PL, Mo Diame who’d had a couple of good seasons at Wigan, old lag James Collins who’d done his PL time at West Ham and Aston Villa, Matt Jarvis who’d performed well for Wolves’ three seasons in the top flight , Andy Carroll who has two season of PL experience with Newcastle and Liverpool and Yossi Benayoun who’s performed at West Ham, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal. It could all go wrong of course, but so far experience has certainly proved more effective than taking a punt on players who have never done it in the Premier League.