Mustn’t grumble. That’s one of those staple phrases I encountered when coming to live in Britain in 1996. And it has served me well ever since. Although supporting West Ham also sometimes shows that the phrase doesn’t fit every situation imaginable. On paper we should have beaten Bournemouth. Even on the pitch, for the first 20 minutes or so we had them under the kosh, so much so that I was expecting a comfortable win for the mighty Hammers. But we lacked the final pass, the ultimate idea in front of their goal, the clinical precision to make our superiority count.
Unfortunately Bournemouth are too organised a team to allow you getting away with wasting opportunities. They didn’t have many chances, but when they finally had one, boy, did they make it count! At that point I was fearing the worst. But I didn’t quite expect us to do another Huddersfield, that is a goal scored within ten seconds or so from kickoff.
We could all see exactly what kind of goals Hernandez can produce if only we were able to cause more havoc in opposition teams’ boxes on a regular basis.
I also found another little thing I liked about Arnautovic, doing one of his amazing runs at the opposition, early in the first half. He ain’t afraid to take one three or four players at the same time, and you can see them being scared stiff, not knowing what he’ll do next while being strong as an ox and hard to bring down by legal means.
But sometimes even Arnautovic can’t find a teammate to play a nice 1-2 with.
So, what does he do, he simply uses an opposition player to do just that.
It looked to me as if he deliberately shot the ball at the opposition player’s foot or leg to then recollect the ball and go past him. It nearly came off too…:-))
A point under the circumstances was a fair result. We keep up our recent run of solid form and are incredibly hard to beat now, unlike several other teams below and around us in the league table. The momentum is with us for sure, but undeniably also the bad old West Ham injury curse has returned with a vengeance, aka “The Bane of the Badger“.
Looking at the players that are currently out due to an injury or a knock or those rumoured to be headed out by way of impending transfer you could field a very decent team with that lot.
That we are at or near the top of the PL’s injury table more often than not clearly is one thing that’s holding us back. It needs to be addressed and maybe, just maybe it’d be worth it to look at our training facilitates yet again, maybe even ask neutral experts in the field, highly professional physios and those knowing about training on different playing surfaces and it’s long-term effects on muscles (we seem to be getting a significant number of muscle related injuries at West Ham).
And the injury crisis brings me to the main point of the column. What is going on in the transfer window.? I know not a whole lot has happened at other clubs, but I ain’t interested in other clubs. Surely our paperthin squad, weakened even further by constant injury struggles, needs some fresh impetus. For obvious reasons.
But also because you have to allow your gaffer, your man in charge of team affairs to build a team according to his vision.
I have warmed to Moyes actually. I am still sorry about Bilic leaving, from a personal standpoint and because I respected that man so much due to his personality and conduct.
But Moyes seems to be a decent fit too and he seems to be willing to build something here. Most of all he needs to secure Premier League status for next season in order to even keep his job. But this is where his current contract could become an issue.
We know that both parties can terminate the deal in the summer at will. Maybe the board still have a certain other manager in mind who they want to bring in (and of course they have previous with Rafael Benitez). That would explain why they may want to keep their powder dry and not spend any money in January (which might add another 10-20 million to our transfer kitty in the summer. I refuse to call it warchest as it’d be a pretty tame war you could fight with the kind of money our board are providing on a regular basis, at least in terms of PL net spend).
It is a dangerous game to play. Now, I don’t believe for one minute we are still in realistic danger of relegation. But we are surely suffering from a bare bones squad and as a manager, any manager, you don’t just want to escape relegation by the skin of your teeth. You want to play football in a certain way, you want competition for places in a balanced squad and you want to finish as high in the table as possible. And for that you need to be able to sign a few players. Players identified and wanted by the manager, not the club owner or his offspring.
What if we don’t sign anyone in January, but Moyes manages to lead us to a decent midtable finish regardless, but decides to walk in the summer nonetheless because he wasn’t supported by the board in January ? It’s not just Moyes that needs to convince the board he is the right man for the club, the board also need to convince Moyes that West Ham is the right club for him. You need to show some trust and I don’t mean some tweets by the Sullivan clan, praising the manager.
No, you show your trust and support by signing at least some of the players the manager wants. You certainly don’t get rid of players without consulting the manager.
And you also don’t sign South American wonderkids that may score high on FIFA18, but are not really wanted by the manager.
We are rumoured to be interested in Samir Nasri. Well, we certainly need midfielders. He’s also a bit of a character and not a spring chicken anymore. As long as the manager is happy with adding him to our squad, why not ? I would still like us to go for Dendoncker who at around 15 million quid would constitute a shrewd signing, same as bringing in Fyodor Smolov, the Russian striker, for a similar kind of fee. But in real life, I wouldn’t expect either to end up at West Ham.
In all likelihood it’s going to be one or two loan signings on deadline day plus maybe a cheap, average, older player from God knows where. I just really hope Moyes does get to see some support from the board in the remaining few days of the transfer window. Otherwise I see a scenario where Moyes moves on in the summer, getting snapped up by another PL club with open arms and also an open chequebook.
What’s been happening over here in Hamburg ? Not that much. Well, storm Friederike struck huge parts of Europe with galeforce winds, bringing rain, snow and destruction to various parts of the continent, including the Fatherland, but luckily the north of Germany, including my hometown, wasn’t hit with the full force of the elements. We had a bit of snow and ice though, and some unpleasant weather which also caused another midseason friendly to get cancelled for Concordia who would have travelled further oop north to Eutin, alas, it wasn’t to be.
So, instead of watching some nice outdoor football I will have to focus on watching us beating Wigan in the Cup on Saturday, if I can find a stream on the internet.
Wigan promises to be another hard nut to crack, especially considering our injury woes. I’d be quite happy to fight out a credible draw and force a replay.
At least it’ll give our youngsters another shot at showing their mettle and playing themselves into the manager’s mind and plans. COYI!!!