I never thought I would post my column this early already. Usually the summer period, for football fans more commonly known as the silly season, is a tedious one for West Ham fans, a time characterised by a severe lack of football, a plethora of frantic and ridiculous rumours from pundits, ITKs, IKFAs, bloggers and football fans behind a keyboard or at least owning a mobile phone, having the ability to type a sentence or two.
Add to that West Ham’s usual modus operandi in recent years when it comes to transfer windows and I thought my next column would probably come out four or five weeks from now, but lo and behold. We have the first new signing in the bag, and a quality one at that, even before the transfer window has officially opened:
Welcome to West Ham Pablo Zabaleta!
For me this is already the most important new signing we will make all summer – and this is before we have signed a new striker! Which, as we all know, is another position we will desperately need to upgrade in the coming weeks. But Pablo Zabaleta is a quality fullback, experienced, impressive physique, great awareness on the pitch, ready to lay his body on the line for the cause. A warrior. A fighter. An Argentinian version of the Ginger Pele, with less Ginger of course but a lot more of Pele about him than Collins.
Having Pablo Zabaleta at West Ham will do two things for us: We finally have a right back in the true sense of the word playing at RB again. Quality wise you have to go back to the days of Lucas Neill as the last time we had a proper right back in the side on a regular basis.
I hear some of you asking: “Hang on! How about young Sam Byram? He’s a right back!”
You are right of course, but in my view Sam Byram will benefit massively from Zabaleta’s presence in the long run. Short term Zabaleta will take a lot of gametime away from Byram, and rightly so. Byram right now isn’t quite ready, he is quite rash in some of his challenges which may come from trying too much or being not quite in a position yet to read a game and anticipate moves by opposing players.
Zabaleta will be like a beacon to Byram in terms of learning how to be a top level defender. And he will also be a glowing example to every other West Ham player how to be a great professional footballer. The following Youtube clip has already been shared on WHTID, but I will put it on here again, because it truly shows us why Zabaleta even at his age (he’s 32 for crying out loud, that’s probably 20 years younger than the average WHTID reader!) is a great signing.
Zabaleta is held in such high regard among the Manchester City fanbase (who were extremly sad to see him leave) which tells me that not only does he leave a lot of blood (quite literally), sweat and tears on the pitch, but that he must also be a great character in the clubhouse and fantastic in bonding with the fans too. Zabaleta appears to really have a lot of love for life and football in Britain (I don’t blame him!) and what’s even more important: In this day and age of crazy transfer fees, TV money and players spending more money on a car key than people earn in a year or two, Zabaleta hasn’t lost touch to the world of the great unwashed, the little man in the street.
I read that a few days ago he donated a week’s wages (90k) to the victims of the recent Manchester suicide bomb attack. I doff my cap to that Mr.Zabaleta!
I feel very happy that this man will be a West Ham player for the coming few seasons and I also expect him to add a lot of stability to our back four which is most welcome.
If he helps us with his experience, reading of the game and passion on the pitch in such a way that we will concede just ten goals less next season this will automatically translate into more points and a better league position. A more solid defensive unit will obviously help our goalkeepers and the entire team.
Good teams build and improve from the back – so in that respect having Zabaleta at West Ham is the most important bit of business we had to do.
That we have done it this early (the deal must have been in the pipeline for weeks, if not months) gives me hope that we will indeed see a more positive approach in the upcoming transfer window. Do your scouting, your negotiations in the background, wrap up the deal, announce it, Bob’s your uncle!
But we also need new additions in the striker department and by the looks of it we seem to be willing to strike early in that department too (pardon the pun)!
Kelechi Iheanacho is a 20year old great prospect, funnily enough a Man City player too (probably not a bad idea to foster good relationships with a club like Man City for future transfers in both directions).
It’s hard to say at this point how likely his signing is. If a fee has been agreed between the clubs. If Iheanacho would be willing to come to West Ham. I’d love to see us sign the lad. Yes, he won’t come cheap. And he hasn’t been a regular starter for Man City which is why we actually even have a chance to sign him in the first place.
If he was banging in 20 goals a season for Man City they wouldn’t sell and we wouldn’t be able to afford his fee.
I have also read Man City might insist on a buyback clause. Which may be a bullet we just have to bite at this junction.
For me it is important to quickly secure deals for two new young strikers, maybe even Batshuayi. First of all because I think we urgently need new strikers we can rely on to feature for the vast majority of games. But secondly to put pressure on the likes of Carroll and Sakho. Both of them simply haven’t featured enough for us (for various reasons), yet they could expect up to now to still feature regularly whenever healthy again because of their wages and because there were no credible alternatives.
Maybe two new young strikers added to the pecking order at West Ham might “convince” Carroll and/or Sakho to get their act together and get/keep themselves in top shape throughout the entire season (including looking after yourself in the summer break). If they don’t feature much anymore, apart from as impact subs, maybe they will be more inclined to look out for a transfer, that is if they still have a genuine desire to play football week in week out.
I am prepared to be pleasantly surprised by our board when it comes to our upcoming transfer business. Zabaleta was a very promising start indeed and if Gold and Sullivan were to continue in a similar vein now when wrapping up deals for new strikers I will happily breathe a sigh of relief first and heap praise on them next.
I’m sure most of you know that season ticket renewal deadline is coming up fast on Wednesday, May 31st, a date I remember so well because it’s me brother’s birthday.
I know a few on here are still mulling over whether to renew or packing it in next season. I wouldn’t dream of trying to tell other people what to do, it’s a deeply personal decision for everybody, same as it was for me.
But maybe you can let us know in the comments once you’ve made that decision and also what your reasons were for renewing or not doing so.
I expect us to make another signing as early as this week. Please continue going to bed though. You will still get the hopefully positive news a bit later, either the next morning or during the day. COYI!