West Ham Till I Die
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The HamburgHammer Column

The heat is on - can the new season please begin now ?

This will be a slightly shorter column as usual, I don’t know what the summer is like in London, but here in Hamburg it’s been relentless, as I am writing this I have just returned from watching two Cup games, involving Concordia, in sweltering heat, with the sun burning the attending public, not to mention the players, into an exhausted state of numbness.

Five hours in the Sunday sunshine sounds like a lorra lorra laughs, let me tell you, at some point it stops being fun.

There ain’t been too much happening in the world of West Ham, other than a 2:2 draw at Preston in yet another preseason game more geared towards gaining match fitness and trying out some players rather than going for the win desperately.

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As there was no properly working stream available I could only watch the goals and they indeed showed what we already knew anyway: That Marko Arnautovic is such a cool and composed customer in the opposition box, calmly putting away his opportunities. In other news water is wet and HamburgHammer likes to eat Pie&Mash.
I would be very reluctant to sell him, unless the price is outrageously high and Arnautovic is desperate to leave.

If that ain’t the case I hope he will remain our first striker on the team sheet next season, or rather this season. Talking of which, Arnautovic is very much a West Ham ambassador these days. I was on the way back to my car after having watched the Concordia U23s win their cup game away to Bergedorf 1:0. Three young guys in their mid-twenties recognised my vintage West Ham #6 Bobby Moore shirt and immediately started talking about West Ham – and the first player they mentioned was Arnautovic.
Those guys didn’t look as if they were watching a lot of Premier League football or West Ham, but they knew Arnautovic and I suppose Marko has put our club on the map for a lot of people outside West Ham.

I saw another rumour that said how Pedro Obiang was very keen to return to Italy, Sampdoria Genoa to be precise. Like all rumours I will take this one with a pinch of salt (and a hint of garlic), however, I wouldn’t dismiss it outright. There have always been players who only felt comfortable playing in one country or even for one club in particular in order to play their best football. In some cases it’s also the family that is driving those decisions.

I’d hate to see Obiang leave, especially after just coming back from his lengthy spell on the sideline. I suppose none of us can ever forget THAT magnificent belter against Tottenham, but I would also see him as a very useful piece of the jigsaw in our midfield, especially now as there should be plenty of outlets available to pass the ball to.
I hope Pedro stays, but if he doesn’t we need to replace him. In my book we need to sign a DM anyway, plus another striker and maybe even another defender.

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One guy West Ham apparently are interested in is Torino defender Nicolas N’Koulou, 28 years old, a very reliable, ball playing centre-back from Cameroon.
Just 1,80 meters tall and not strongly built, a powerhouse he is not. But he has featured in virtually every game for Torino last season and doesn’t seem to have any significant weaknesses.

Fairly quick for a defender, N’Koulou’s main strength appears to be his concentration which means he rarely gets caught out on the pitch, resulting in him getting booked only four times last season. Another strong point is his ability to play in the role of a defensive midfielder which might come in handy.

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Oh, and we may also still be interested in that Croatian defender, Domagoj Vida, the guy who shares the same hairdresser with Legolas, the handsome and fast-running Elf from Lord of the Rings. How interested ? We shall see, but there is no doubt in my mind there will be more signings in the coming days and weeks.

In case you were wondering, yes Concordia’s first team also won their Cup game, 3:1 at home against some minnows from a club originally founded by railway workers.
Cordi derailed their hopes of making it into the next round, but it wasn’t a good game to watch as the temperatures made it very hard for the players to shine, it really was gruesome out there – and all I had to do was find a bit of shade to stand in and cheer the lads on.

That’s all for now folks, let’s hope we will get some more positive updates soon in terms of new players coming in, but also of players not getting sold we’d prefer to keep.

COYI!!!

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