Oh Carroll! Getting our injury crisis in early…

Andy Carroll is set to miss the first three game of the season while he recovers from a thigh injury. I'm not even sure what part of his body is injured anymore. Last season Slaven said AC was "feeling his groin" after the game at Sunderland in April and then we never saw him again. That was three and a half months ago. He's still a great player if he can make the pitch, but Andy's body just doesn't seem up to the rigours of the PL anymore. Meanwhile Antonio is on course with his recovery but will miss the first game of the season at Old Trafford and Kouyate has picked up an injury too. Oh well, at least we've got our injury crisis in early. 

On a more positive note, it was good to see Toni Martinez get a game and score with a well-taken header against Werder Bremen. With Andy forever crocked, he may well get a few more run-outs this season.

£6.5 million for Fletcher?

If West Ham can get £6.5 million from Middlesbrough for Ashley Fletcher then it's a great piece of business. That's £1.5 million more than Enner Valencia went for, who was an experienced international and World Cup star. Fletcher is a promising youngster and didn't really get enough chances last season when he could have replaced Jonathan Calleri. But even so, when he did come on late in games he didn't take the chances that came his way, such as his late dink wide against Spurs. 

He only started in two league games and scored one goal in the League Cup against Man United, though he had proved he could score regularly for Barnsley the previous season in League One. But even so, I'd say he's a £1.5 to £2million million player on current stats, not a £6.5 million player. Garry Monk presumably remembers that Fletcher was a promising youth player at Man United and is now taking a massive punt. Prices really are going crazy, with Swansea asking for £50 million for Sigurdsson, fine player that he is  — it's almost as if they're being set by our old midfielder Shaun Newton after a year of celebrating his birthday…

Are West Ham's signings too old?

Interesting piece in today's Guardian by Jacob Steinberg, headlined, "A great window for West Ham… or sticking plasters in lieu of a plan?" He points out that though the Irons have made great signings on paper, they do not provide the pace Bilic said he wanted and they're all on the old side. Zabaleta is 32, Hart 30, Hernandez 29 and Arnautovic 28. 

In the piece David Sullivan admits that the club have gone back on their plan of recruiting youth: "We made a decision with the manager to buy players proven in the Premier League, who've been here before and who are of an age where they're not being bought for tomorrow but today. Long term it's not a great strategy, but short term it is." 

I'd agree with Sullivan that football is a short-term game and that if West Ham win a cup or get in the top six in the next couple of years then they'll look like great signings. And remember that the likes of Calleri were signed for the future. 

But Steinberg also has a point in the way the club is seemingly always changing strategy: "Robert Snodgrass, signed as Payet's replacement six months ago, has been replaced by Arnautovic after half a season. That is the price of short-termism: it exposes the lack of a plan." Click on the link to read the complete feature.

Little Pea joins the ranks of Psycho and Terminator

The signing of Javier Hernandez brings a welcome upgrade to the quality of Hammers' nicknames. He is nicknamed Chicharito, meaning Little Pea. His dad, also a footballer, was nicknamed Pea because of his green eyes. It's certainly a change from the likes of Mooro, Bonzo, Pottsy, Keeny, Tonks and Nobes. West Ham have had some interesting nicknames in the past. Alvin Martin was nicknamed Stretch because he used to stretch out watching television while the lads nicknamed Trevor Brooking Hadleigh because he resembled the lead character in a 1970s TV series. Paul Goddard was Sarge due to his involvement in the Boys Brigade.

Other nicknames have been performance-related. We had David 'Psycho' Cross and Stuart 'Psycho' Pearce, Julian 'Terminator' Dicks and our favourite canine midfielder, Martin 'Mad Dog' Allen. While the very large Papa Bouba Diop was simply The Wardrobe. Of the current squad, we're pretty short of nicknames even if we do have Ginger Pele in James Collins and the Enid Blyton-inspired Snoddy in the case of Robert Snodgrass and Manuel Lanzini is called 'The Jewel' in Argentina. Let's hope the arrival of Little Pea inspires a host of new vegetable-inspired monikers. If only we still had Michael Carrot and Florin Radish-cioiu.

Farewell Darren Randolph

Best of luck to Darren Randolph who is moving to Middlesbrough for £5 million following the arrival of Joe Hart. He's a good keeper, if sometimes a little inconsistent. In his first season he did really well in the Cup games and also when called upon to deputise for Adrian, such as a fine performance in the 3-0 win at Liverpool. A long run in the first team found the pressure getting to him a little bit last season and he was dropped after a couple of mistakes at Sunderland — although in fairness he was playing behind a very shaky defence. But Randolph could also produce brilliant saves, not least a spectacular tip-over from Jordan Henderson's rocket at Anfield, which is being shown on the club's website tribute. Thanks for a productive two seasons, Darren.

Hernandez knows where the net is

We're having a much better transfer window this summer, opting for proven PL quality rather than numbers. With West Ham agreeing a £16m deal for Javier Hernandez, subject to his medical, the Irons have a proven goalscorer. Hernandez has a great goals to game ratio; he scored 59 goals in 156 appearances (quite a few of these as a sub) for Man United and 39 times in 76 games for Bayern Leverkusen and 7 in 23 while on loan at Real Madrid. Not to mention 48 strikes for Mexico. Interestingly, Jose Mourinho was openly critical of David Moyes for allowing Henandez to leave Man United. Yes, he's a little old at 29, but should have a good few years left.

Javier's also the third player with a title medal to join his summer. That doesn't guarantee anything of course, QPR signed title winners Park Ji Sung, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Jose Bosingwa only to end up relegated. But our players look more solid characters and we should now have a mentality for grinding out results. Hernandez will also be the first West Ham player to be nicknamed Chicharito ('Little Pea') which makes a change from Nobes and Ginge.

What is West Ham's strongest side?

With three new signings (and possibly a new striker in Javier Hernandez) it's interesting to speculate on just what will be the first choice West Ham X1. It would probably be something like this: 

Hart; Zabaleta, Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell;  Kouyate, Obiang, Lanzini; Antonio, Carroll (or a new striker), Arnautovic. 

While the subs would come from the likes of Fonte, Collins, Noble, Ayew, Snodgrass, Feghouli, Fernandes, Sakho, Byram and Masuaku. Though Fonte or Ginge could also come into the side to make a back five. It certainly looks a lot stronger than last season's line-up. Any views on this? Though this is all hypothetical as as I'm sure the obligatory WHU injury-crisis will soon hit…