Well, with January not so far away and the wheeling and dealing due to commence soon, there is speculation building as to who will be making their way to Upton Park. Personally, I'm just looking forward to Sky Sports News and the bloke with the three mobile phones again on deadline night, it was hilarious!
Anyway, paper talk seems to be pretty confident we'll be bringing in Nicky Shorey and Giles Barnes come Jan time. The perspective on the Shorey story has certainly changed since August. George McCartney has been one of our best players this season and it would be incredibly harsh for him to be second string to Shorey, who granted is a very decent player. The recent injury to McCartney shows we need some cover there, but will both players be happy to rotate? It's not like we are in the Champions League is it?
Giles Barnes did not overwhelm me when we thrashed Derby but by all accounts he could be good, seems a bit Jermaine Penant/Kieran Richardson to me ie can put in some good performances but tends to flatter to deceive. It would also then give us 4 options on the right - Solano (my first choice), Boa-Morte, Ljungberg and Barnes. Wonder if LBM will be off in Jan as well? I think he is dispensable myself.
We're also supposedly tracking a Liverpool reserve centre half called Jack Hobbs. As long as he is better than Neil Mellor, then it will be fine!
i dont see the point in signing players who aint as good as the players we already have shorey is a average player and aint as good as mccartney the same as barnes who aint as good as we already have but he may be one for the future. if we sign a left back i would like matt taylor who always give 110% and always pops up with a few goals or wayne bridge who is a very good left back. i just think we have too many average center backs i'd sell ferdinand and another 1 or 2 and bring in a top class one if we could someone who will control that back 4.
Posted by: west ham johnny | 18/11/2007 at 15:01
No dont want barnes - non existent in our recent game. plus we have kyle reid and faubert to come back. No to shorey, pretty average for what they would want would prefer Matt Taylor also. Would like us to concentrate on a playermaker in the arteta/requelme mould. Plus a renowned striker to cover or alternate with bellamy and Ashton.Plus now back from injury give Collins a run and if it dont work out or he breaks down again then look for a ball winning centre back
Posted by: arthur | 18/11/2007 at 20:08
George McCartney has been excellent this season and desrves to be the No 1 left back (I actually rate him higher than Shorey)
The money would be better spent on a decent forward as Deano seems a tad injury prone.
As does Bellers.
Posted by: Hammeron | 18/11/2007 at 20:40
Agree with previous posts.
Shorey doesn't look any better than Stella who has been our most consistent defender this year - as well as scoring the best goal of the season so far!
And Barnes - if he plays on the right as the previous posts imply - would be be competing with Faubert, Nobby, Bowyer, Ljungberg and Dywer for a right mid start. (Not that that lot will ever all be fit at the same time) If on the left then with Etehrington and LBM. His fairly poor performance against us didn't convince me he's worth having on a free never mind the £5-7m being talked about. Only things in his favour are he's young and a local.
Agree what we really need is a creative spark, like Elano at Man City.. I keep saying Riquelme, but would be happy with Arteta.
Posted by: anyotherbizniz | 18/11/2007 at 22:36
Guys come on you have to start thinking outside the box, curbs is not going to play barnes on the flaks because of the ability we have there already, for example on the right we have faubert lyjungberg solano reid and on the left dyer, ethers and lbm he not looking to play him there hes looking for cover in the front line, hes an attacking midfeilder with a creative side so all of the above comments are looking for barnes so stop moaning + he is very young, lyjungberg is very old! enougth said.
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