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All the papers are full of Dean Ashton going to Stoke? Why on earth would Dean Ashton want to go to Stoke?
You would have to ask Dean Ashton that. I haven’t spoken to Dean, or his agent and I certainly haven’t spoken to Stoke. Dean Ashton is not for sale. He certainly won’t be playing for anyone at the beginning of next season other than West Ham. I think it is a bit of transfer speculation that has no substance to it. He won’t be playing for Stoke.
But if someone came in with a really big bid for him, surely you’d be tempted to take it for a player who doesn’t play an awful lot, although when he does play, he invariably scores.
Gianfranco has not seen him play. Any decision in that regard will be down to Gianfranco. If he wants to accept a bid and believes that money can be better used elsewhere then he will do so. But all I know from the conversations I have had with Gianfranco is that he respects Dean Ashton and from what he has seen on the TV he is a top quality player. I think Gianfranco will want to see him. He wants him as part of his plans and then, like with any player, he will make decisions. But I think it is unthinkable to think that, when we signed a new contract with him only a year ago – a very good contract, and he’s been injured for most of that time, both parties owe it to each other that he starts the season and he plays and he achieves success for West Ham, because it would be unthinkable that after all of this rehab he then suddenly leaves. I just don’t see that situation happening.
But is loyalty a word which doesn’t exist any more?
Not with Gianfranco. He engineers loyalty. People want to play for Gianfranco. I agree with you – if they don’t want to play for Gianfranco then that’s fine. They can move on. I think Dean wants to play for Gianfranco. He wants to be part of what we are trying to achieve and therefore he will be very much part of our plans.
COMMENT
I desperately want to see a fit Dean Ashton firing on all cylinders. His goal ratio is second to none, and if he has the right service, he’s quite capable of getting 20 goals a season. But his attitude is under question. Rumour is that he was fit at the end of last season but refused to play. It’s also quite clear that there has been some sort of contact between him and Stoke, although why on earth he would want to go there is anyone’s guess. They already have an Ashton style player in James Beattie. There’s no way they could match his wages, and he’s unlikely to be taken seriously by Capello if he does go. If he wants to be considered for the World Cup he should stay put. Indeed, for a player who West Ham have stood by through think and thin to even consider going elsewhere at the moment is just plain wrong.
Iain, can you elaborate on your two crucial points:
How do you know there has been contact between Stoke and Deano? If SD says no official contact then you are accusing Stoke of tapping him up.
How much substance is in the rumour that he was fit and refused to play? I read comments at the end of the season that he wanted to play but GZ didn’t want to risk him. i think if your rumour has any truth it should come out as it would change my mind, and no doubt many other supporters’ minds about whether to keep him or not.
My opinion is it is not worth paying players who do not want to play for you – includes a certain Mr. Neill. You might as well move them on and use the money/their wages to bring in players who do want to play for you.
I take it from Duxberry’s comments that Deano is now fully fit to start the new season. If he stays fit and the team starts coming together then I don’t see why he would want to leave. If he breaks down again then I guess he would sadly be offloaded, but a fit Deano for the season with 15+ goals is as exciting a prospect as any of our imminent arrivals.
I think all this appears logical under the circumstances and I agree why would ashton want to go to Stoke ! I am much more concerned about who we might be buying ! The much paraded Mancini still appears to be eating his spagetti. Does he want to come ? are we spending a lot of time trying to get a player that has to be talked into it ! I still hav’nt got over the buying of Sevio, not that he is not a good prospect, but we could’nt afford the luxury of this type of investment when we needed a NOW ! player.
Is this the Nani state ?
Iain
can the next part be about transfer targets
I believe there’s very little truth in him being ready to play last season. Why risk him breaking down again for one or two games at the end of the season. The club done the wise approach and will make sure he is ready to start preseason with the rest of the team.
There has been no tapping up or approach from Stoke, I never believed it at the time and I think Duxbury has now confirmed it. Who do you think Stoke are, to be able to tap up Ashton? They are not Real Madrid or Man U.
If Ashton, or Neil start the first game of the season, they are wearing our colours and I would hope every fan gets 100% behind them and ignore speculation on the negative side. Ashton is top draw and when fit, we will be fortunate to have him playing for us.
Alan Curbishley was quite frustrated with Dean’os reluctance to play when he thought he was not ready and that was why Curbishley wanted to sell him. AC lost his job with this as one of the reasons (putting forward Deano as sellable). If you read between the lines in Deano’s last interview he again is reluctant to play in case his ankles give way again and has now lost a great deal of weight in the hope he does not break down again. I feel sorry for him but he has to bite the bullet this time and turn up for pre-season ready, fit, and only time will tell whether his ankles are both healed and his body weight low enough to take the knocks as they will come almost at once from the cloggers of Mick McCarthy’s Wolves team on 15th August.
There’s no chance Ashton would move to Stoke.
Zola want’s to see him on the pitch. He knows he’s a goal scorer and from many different parts of the pitch.
Why would you play two matches after such a long injury period when you can have a full pre season with everyone else then return.
If Neil wants to sign the contract West Ham will welcome him back because he is a very experienced and capable player. He will not, however, retain the captaincy. Scott Parker or perhaps Upson will get that.
With Ashton, Cole, Dixon, and one more striker, along with our fast skillfull midfield we have the potential to score a lot of goals. Exciting times!
I’d like to believe that Dean isn’t foolish. He isn’t going to be playing with someone the caliber of Jimenez at Stoke. Some of these papers and “news” sites make up things with little or no encouragement. I wouldn’t put it past Stoke to explore possibilities like Dean. They haven’t a thing to lose by looking into it but, Stoke have a good rep and I don’t believe they will have tapped up the player. If anything, it wouldn’t surprise me if his agent is causing the stir since he hasn’t had a nice transfer fee in a while. Agents (not all but many) are the source of much of the transfer trouble in my opinion. As long as they make obscene profit from moving their player on they will be motivated to do so regardless of what’s best for the player. And many of these young lads don’t know who else to trust. For agents it is a tried and true technique to plant the rumours that fly around, sometimes to gage interest, sometimes to pressure a club and sometimes to unsettle their own player into a big money move elsewhere. And it doesn’t take much effort what with so many websites rewording other peoples reports. That’s another reason why I appreciate Mr. Duxbury coming out in these interviews to help us wade through the rumour and innuendo that is out there to sell papers and promote the agendas of players and agents.
Thats why it was important to employ a manager with a big name like Zola, because players want to play for them.People like Jiminez wouldn’t of come otherwise,I think any striker would want to learn from someone so gifted as Zola.
if scott hasnt spoken to aston then how does he know he wants to stay and play? mistic meg at work i hear you cry !
exactly Brooking still the best
i dont think we can assume ashton doesnt want to play. he was out for the whole season, we cant expect him to come back in for the last 2 or 3 games when it could risk a follow on injury. i think he is sensible for waiting, it gives him a full pre season to prepare and get up to match fitness slowly.
A fully fit Deano would be a great asset for us. Even if we wanted to sell him (which SD has made clear we don’t) it probably wouldn’t be financially attractive to do so as few clubs would be prepared to spend big money up front on a player with his recent injury record.
On a different tack Sky Sports is reporting Faubert is wanted by no less than three Bundesliga clubs!!
About bloody time, why has it taken 3 weeks for WHU to announce Ashton is going nowhere. We all know a fit Ashton is the best striker in the prem. looking forward to seeing him next season.coyi
dean ashton mmmm.not for a while have i had so many mixed feelings about one of our players .the minuses are his fitness obviously.also he is not the hardest of workers and when things go wrong for him he seems to give up.the plusses are that he is a superb striker of a ball.has good vision and will get you goals.keep him or sell him, i really cant make up my mind.if zola is gonna play with one main striker and two wider men i think he will pick cole ahead of ashton for his mobility.now im gonna go to a dark room and lie down
i have mixed feelings about dean also, not because of his injuries but because of his attitude. I remember him clearly waiting for the ball to drop at his feet, whilst zamora and even cole at that time used to run their socks off upfront, trying to win the first ball. Any of you remember him winning any headers when he came back from the injury looking like a mechanical robot?
On the other hand i will stick with him till january to see what he can give us.
I would like to raise another point. I know that its thanks to zola that some players are signing, but aren’t we pushing the “he wants to play for franco” a bit too far?
I repeat i know zola is doing miracles but i would love players to want to play for us the WEST HAM UNITED, THE ACEDEMY OF FOOTBALL.
What happens if Gianfranco leaves someday? Will all these players tell us that they wanted to play for him, and leave?
No individual is greater than the club so in my opinion the club must be promoted first at all times.
there are a lot of ifs and buts ‘ashton is a great plyer if fit’. the key to a successful team is consistancy and west ham cant afford to pay someone 65k a week who isnt playing if we got 12m for him then we can add it to our budget and sign a replacement who is better.
flynn you aint gunna find anyone better than ashton for £12m
also we wouldnt get £12m at the min, he hasnt been fit for a while so would probably go for more like £7/8m
i have said before and will sell again he is a class player, and it just confuses me so much when people on here who must have seen him play think it would make sense to sell!
and flynn i’d like to know how you know he is on £65k a week? anything else you wish to share with us as you seem to have the figures?
anybody seen the new players profiles,there’s a few players missing now!!!!!!!!!!!
I like the honesty from Scott Duxberry and I think we can trust what he says and not wonder if it’s just a blanket thrown over certain issues to fool us all.(Mr Brown comes to mind).
If players want to play for Zola then they will not worry over wages so much.
Can’t wait for a very interesting season to begin.
Dominic makes a fair point. As chuffed as I am with Zola & Clarke, I also hope the players are attracted to the Club as much as to GZ & SC. Their influence though does appear to be within the tradition of WHU for attractive flowing attacking football, and what harm can that do for our Club?? I think we have a very bright future ahead. Cant wait! COYI!
I wonder if the GF influence is so strong – havent seen the mancini deal come off yet despite Dux saying he was off to Milan last week to concule it.
If Ashton’s a sick note or not we can’t sell him pre-season as we would not get the right price for him. Dom is right; if he is not fit to be in claret and blue then jan is the right time to sell him; provided he is not injured again..
He he is fit and up for it; then we have one of the best goal scorers in the PL.
COYI!
Everyone wanted to play for Ron Greenwood. Was that wrong and any harm to WHUFC?
By the way Scott duxbury’s new persona as a truthful and honest CEO should not cloud the fact that he is solely to blame for the Tevez debacle,he lied 3 times to the premier lge, so dont be fooled by anything he has to say now.
It’s quite simple for me. I hope he stays. I hope he plays. I hope he scores a truckload of goals for us because I know he’s capable of it.
Who are we going to get to replace him? Proven goalscorers in the premier league are not ten a penny.
I have as much faith in the new medical team at West Ham as I do in Ashton’s abiltiy. He has to play for us next season.
We deserve a fully fit Ashton on his game for us. I think he should be our first choice striker – all day long. Our patience will hopefully pay off.
COYI!!!
Don’t see that we have much choice no club that he would want to play for would want him at the moment, so we are not going to get much for him,I still say it’s a big risk and If a sizable offer came in £10 mill + then I would take it and move on.
His potential has droped and this will be a big season for his career, next year he could be worth £20 mill or Nothing, Fingers crossed it goes well and we can all say thank goodness we kept him.
Scott Duxbury’s interviews has been a very positive spin exercise. Good on him to keep us all informed on whats been going on at the club. I am sure he is chuffed to bits with the response it’s had.
He certainly has changed my mind a little.
One note of caution, it’s pretty worrying that as far as I can gather, very little money is going to be spent this summer, theres very little speculation in the media about players being linked. It’s a sign where the club is that nearly every other club will out spend us in the premiership, not only this year but the last summer as well. For all those who still seem to support the idea the previous chairman BG was good for this club, he certainly left the club with a legacy of dept never seen before. As every amount of money he was supposed to have put in was credited to the clubs depts, I cant see how he done anything good at all? Thanks to the present management team, it has gone mostly un-noticed the recouping of costs by selling fringe and 1st team players over the last two transfer windows. Dont be to suprised to see one or more go this summer as well just before the season or window closes. This charm offensive by Scoot Duxbury may just have a sting in the tail.
Zola and Clark and Nani must continue to work their magic if we are to continue to progress this season. Not many teams are going to let go of good assets on loan if they can sell at a reasonable price now.
A fully fit Dean Ashton is as good as Drogba, he`s big and knows where the net is,it`s just he was unlucky to spend so much time on the treatment table.It`s a matter of time and the time is getting near.Let`s all West Ham faithfull get behind Dean and nice to hear Danny Gabiddon is close to return.COYI!!!!!.
Be positive, IF Deano is fully fit he WILL get the 20 goals a season we all want from a striker. He is as good a forward as anyone in England and a good campaign will see him picked for the World Cup. Why do you think we bought him in the first place !!!!!
Given the chance to sign another English forward who would you all buy…. Bent, Crouch, Nugent no not even Agbonlahor for me. Deano if fit will do me fine thanks, come on Deano show ‘em all.
Irons