Last week I had nothing to fill my column, this week quite a bit has happened, both at West Ham and in my crazy, little world. On Friday it was really all happening, literally at the same time – and I’m not even talking about the deadline for season ticket renewals officially expiring.
After all, I had renewed mine the week before already.
They say that you can’t juggle too many balls at once and I found that out the hard way on Friday, the day of my brother’s birthday.
He had invited the small band which is our family for a nice meal at his local Greek restaurant (Mediterranean cuisine is always a hit with me).
When my brother announced earlier in the week he’d be having the meal late afternoon on the day of his birthday I of course told him there was a bit of a clash with the Cordi U23 team playing in the local Cup Final, a big occasion for the players and fans, but also the club as a whole as it would bring some much needed money, prestige and feelgood factor to Concordia – and maybe even a shiny new trophy!
But I obviously knew I had to get my priorities right here – so family first it was, Cordi second – and before you mention it, no, it wasn’t (just) because of the food I opted for the family dinner.
If I had picked a game of football over my brother’s big day, considering that not too long ago we couldn’t even be sure he’d be able to celebrate another birthday party in the first place, well, then my brother would probably have stopped talking to me for quite a while and rightly so.
It was a lovely meal of course (involving plenty of garlic) and when we parted I had one eye on the clock – it was still reasonably early and if I was lucky with traffic I could maybe make it to the football ground just in time to still catch the second half.
But when I got there it was nigh on impossible to find a parking spot (as the ground was smack in the middle of a residential area) and once I had eventually discovered a gap nearby, I heard the cruel sound of the final whistle while on my way to the ground. I quickly learned that the Cordi boys had lost 1:5, but the game apparently was much closer than the scoreline would suggest and their opponents were heavy favourites to begin with, playing two levels above Cordi.
The lads still celebrated as if they had won the Cup anyway, long into the night and they were happy enough to celebrate and mingle with the fans, including myself.
Every single player was sociable, we were discussing the highlights and setbacks of the season just gone, already looking ahead to the next. And highly entertaining and educational it was too, with one of the players’ WAGs desperate to finally get to the bottom of the offside rule, with four different players trying to explain the finer details, with varying degrees of success, using bottles, plastic cups and lighters to recreate offside situations. Such fun!
West Ham, meanwhile, have made their first signing of the summer, out of the claret and blue, with no social media ITK getting a sniff before the player was doing the crossed hammers on the OS announcement article. Well done!
That’s how I want this club to conduct their transfer business. No leaks, no polls, just sit down with the gaffer, identify the targets and go after them without announcing our intentions to every John, Paul and Ringo who has a blog or podcast to fill.
Roberto Jimenez Gago, or simply Roberto for his friends, is a veteran goalkeeper, arriving on a free transfer from Espanyol. 33 years old, nicknamed The Wall (promising moniker, but I hope he can also move a bit when required), the guy has been around the block a few times, notching up over 500 games in his professional career so far, winning the Europa League with Atletico and also spending time at Malaga and Olympiakos.
The Malaga link is crucial as obviously Husillos very much knew what he’d be getting, bringing Roberto to East London. Not so much buying the cat in the bag, but having a solid wall made of Spanish brick, 1.92m high.
Roberto is also fluent in English already which should help him massively with settling into his new life in London in next to no time.
For me this signing does tick a lot of boxes. It’s a free transfer to begin with which is always a hit with our notoriously thrifty owners. Roberto apparently will be on lower wages than Adrian was too which will free up further wages for a more spectacular and expensive new arrival this summer. Of course we no longer need to bring in a marquee signing for the purpose of pushing season ticket renewal figures, that ship has sailed. But Pellegrini surely will not be able to improve the squad by signing freebies and loan players only.
So saving some dosh while replacing Adrian is smart business. Having read up on Roberto and also watching some footage on Youtube he looks like a very decent backup.
Experienced, with a penchant for reaction saves plus the ability to start a quick counter attack with a precise long kick to an outfield player. I am not quite sure yet at this stage if he will be quite good enough to give Fabianski a run for his money, if he will seriously challenge our Polish Number One for the starting spot or if it’ll strictly be backup and Cup duties he’ll be performing.
We shall see. I have read comments from some supporters at his previous clubs claiming Roberto has moments of butterfingeritis resulting in a tendency to drop some balls occasionally, so we should expect a number of heart-stopping rebounds which should keep our defenders on their toes at least.
Like every summer there are also players of course who will be off, in some cases we already know they’re gone, in other cases there are strong rumours of deals being prepared. Andy Carroll not getting a new contract surely doesn’t surprise anyone and it’s a telling irony that he is out injured as his career at West Ham is drawing to a close.
His time with us was constantly blighted by injury, when you consider he wasn’t even available for selection for about half of the games it’s staggering evidence of a transfer gone pear-shaped.
Yes, I know that he scored some bloody nice goals for us, his bicycle kick surely still ranking as probably the best goal scored at London Stadium so far. But when you contrast his wages with the games he played and the goals he scored it simply wasn’t enough. A transfer that never really took off and simply didn’t really work out, neither for the club nor the player, apart from the financial package. But I’m convinced that footballers want to play the game rather than just cash their cheques and mow the lawn in their back garden.
Nasri will not get a contract extension either, again, not surprising really and another nice wad of wages saved for other potential incomings. Which apparently also applies to both Hernandez and Perez (whose transfer by all accounts is imminent).
Both of them were high on wages and low on gametime which is both unfortunate and unsustainable long-term, so selling them to Spain makes a lot of sense. It’d leave us very short on the offensive side of the ball for the time being, but there is enough time to fix that. With Arnautovic likely to stay and Silva potentially playing a bigger role next season, we still need another striker or two though and I fully trust Pellegrini and Husillos to be right there on the case.
I don’t know what it is about this time of year. Maybe it’s to do with all clubs having a blank canvas at this stage. Failures of the season just gone are slowly fading away from memory. Fans at this stage can instead focus on dreaming about their clubs making some fantastic signings over the summer, improving the squad further. There are no West Ham games at the weekend with strikers shamefully missing sitters, with woeful defending or shocking refereeing calls to dampen any unexplainable outpourings of optimism among a fanbase that is already looking forward to the new season.
Maybe the lovely weather does play a part as well. I cannot help but, maybe foolishly and against better judgment, feel positive about next season.
At this point I am 100% we will have a better squad at West Ham two months from now, suffering fewer injuries, we will score more goals and concede nowhere near as many as last season, opponents will struggle to beat us at London Stadium, no matter if they’re Liverpool, Burnley, Brighton or Aston Villa.
Let’s hope the feeling/delusion lasts a bit longer. Thank God the summer will not be without football altogether as there still is the Women’s World Cup looming large where we can keep an eye on Germany and England – and don’t forget Scotland who will have West Ham forward Jane Ross hoisting the claret and blue colours, metaphorically, in France.
Could be interesting. As surely West Ham’s transfer business will continue to be over the coming weeks. COYI!!!