Another break for some International footie and the Hammers are still sitting comfortably in fourth place in the Premier League table. Yes, that’s your good old West Ham United, we are still talking football and after numerous gruesome pinching sessions I have convinced myself that this is in fact really happening.
I’m salivating at the thought of our options in upcoming games with a fully fit squad as Demel should also return after the break, same as Zarate who apparently had a bit of a niggle (nothing more) before the Villa game and according to some usually well informed sources is still very much in our plans for the future.
Life is bizarrely very good for a West Ham fan right now.
Which brings out the pedantic side in this particular German, the worrying side which makes one feel suspicious if things go too smoothly and so much better than according to the realistic and conservative plan we may have had at the start of the season. And it got me thinking about the boring domestic league I have to suffer at home, the Bundesliga. I hear you all collectively sigh: What is the prat talking about ? Standing terraces, cheap tickets, beer allowed in the ground, some hugely entertaining football and a fantastic national side to boot who are the current World Champions.
But trust me, this is now a league that’s as boring as it gets. The one reason: Bayern Munich. They seem to have a subscription on the title and usually win it at a canter six or seven weeks before the season officially ends, only every four or five years another team gets a shot, but even those teams never really can close the gap to the mighty Bavarans for several seasons in a row. Why ? Because Bayern have a habit of snatching away the key players that make competitors tick. It’s been happening since I started watching football as a five year old in front of our black and white telly.
Before teams can build squads to really challenge Bayern for years to come the key player(s) are presented with offers from Bayern that neither the players nor their club can refuse. These players more often than not then ride the Bayern bench for the next few years instead of being regular starters. But Bayern don’t care as long as Dortmund, Schalke, Stuttgart or whoever cannot continue to benefit from those players. I’ve even got tired of hating Bayern as it is so futile now, the best players from the league are just being hoovered up by Bayern who rarely seem to lose out to even bigger clubs like Real or Barcelona.
The result: Teams like Dortmund, Bremen, Stuttgart and Hamburg who at one point were all title holders are now bumbling along the bottom of the table, although it is of course not solely Bayern’s fault they have fallen that far behind.
For West Ham the situation is even more difficult as in the Premier League there are several clubs doing the hoovering up on top of other moneybag clubs of course like PSG, Real, Barcelona or the Milan clubs. West Ham have always been known as a selling club, the Academy of Football developed the players, they became good, but before they reached the ‘brilliant’ stage they were sold to the highest bidder. And rarely for amounts that reflected their true value.
With West Ham about to move into the OS this mentality has to change, even at the risk of turning down some good or even fantastic financial offers from other clubs.
I don’t think other clubs see West Ham as a threat to the big clubs yet, so there will be no deliberate effort to weaken our squad, but clubs will still try to take our best players away from us, those that have hit the ground running and those that have surprised us all with their breath of fresh air performances: Guys like Sakho, Valencia, Downing, Kouyate, Song, Cresswell, maybe even Adrian if he continues to improve.
Our board have mentioned in the recent past that we were no longer a selling club and I reckon the time is near when we can put those statements to the test of harsh reality.
Will we get weak in the knees when offers for Sakho and Valencia fly into the club’s offices ? Will we consider selling for 15 million ? 20 million ?
When does an offer become too good to turn down ?
I have a very strong opinion on this: You choose the players you consider to be the spine of your team and then do a Barcelona, well, maybe a Barcelona light – you slap ridiculous price tags on their heads to fend off interested parties. You want Sakho who fits our team like a hand in glove ? Bidding starts at 50 million.
Same for Valencia. Interested in Cresswell ? Well, have you got those 30 million available in cash please ? You get my drift.
Realistically you don’t want to lose those spine players but if you have to you at least ask for serious money that allows you to bring in adequate replacements that will keep the team at the same level of quality.
I live in the real world. I know if any offers for our players reach a certain level they will be gone in a flash. But I hope our board are true to their statement.
We need to stop being a selling club if we want to be a challenger for years to come and make the move into the OS a success.
We need to keep building our squad, not dismantling it once we’ve started playing well. Let’s try and make the Premier League a bit more interesting in the next few years.
Mind you, it’s a lot more interesting right now than the boring Bundesliga.