In one of the quickest transfer sagas of the summer we've got our man. The fee undisclosed but I believe it to be in the region of £2million. Taylor will offer something else to the side weather he plays at left back or on the left hand side of the midfield and with a cracking left foot that can be seen at its finest here , I'm personally looking forward to watching Taylor strutting his stuff at Upton Park next season. Another player who I'm looking forward to watching provided that he stays fit next season is Gary O'Neil who showed glimpses of decent attacking intent before he got injured towards the end of last season. A good crosser of the ball and I can certainly see him providing many assists for Cole (provided that he stays).
As I stated in my last post, I believe that there are four maybe even five areas of the team that still need improving. Provided that Green stays I think that are goalkeeping options in reserve are fine, Stech deserves a chance to prove himself and we've also got Kurucz. However if Green leaves then I think we need to target Joe Lewis. A good shot-stopper who proved his worth with Peterborough last season who I believe would be the end to all our problems. Lewis is tall and therefore commanding in the air which would hopefully put an end to our poor defending at corners - something which I hope Allardyce has been working hard on in training. With the departure of Upson, Da Costa and Jacobsen our back four is looking thin, the arrival of Faye has strengthened it somewhat however we are still a centre back away from being as strong as we should be. Having seen him in action a couple of times last season and impressing me somewhat I feel that Alex Bruce (son of Steve Bruce) would not only strengthen the squad but improve the back four. A fee in the region of £2-3 million would be required to snap him up from Leeds but he certainly looks an interesting prospect. If Taylor hasn't been signed to play in the left back role then I think we need to sign someone to cover Illunga, now for me this was a pretty easy role to research and if it's experience we need then it has to be Ian Harte - a player who has also been there and done that who currently plays his trade at Reading wouldn't command a large fee at all and his wages would be relatively small in comparison to Nolan and co. In my opinion the right back role is fine Jordan Spence who played in that position for the last couple of games at the end of last season deserves to be given the chance to prove himself and we've got cover in the form of Reid (our World Cup star) so I'm not too worried bar an injury crisis.
Our midfield is shaping up to be looking quite promising. Nolan, Parker (for now), Noble and Collison battling for at most three central midfield places could be quite exciting. As I stated earlier the return of O'Neil on the right, Barerra/Taylor on the left and Sears/Hines coming off the bench to replace tired legs our midfield is going to be fast and industrial. The thought of Nolan and Parker playing together for a season is shall we say ... mouth watering. Apart from the defence the area that worries me the most is up top. There is no point of having a very decent midfield if there is not sufficient talent to finish moves off. I'm a fan of Cole and provided that he finds his shooting boots early on in the season I can see him ending up top goal scorer and winning back the majority of fans. Piquionne should get amongst the goals this season as there were times last season where he looked lethal amongst looking clumsy. I'll admit we need a proven goal scorer but who? I can't see us signing Gradel unless Barerra leaves and with him performing incredibly well at the Copa America I can see him being given another chance to prove himself, which I'm all for. The Championships top goal scorer last season was Danny Graham (Watford) followed by Grant Holt and Shane Long (Norwich and Reading respectively). Long is well and truly out of our price range as reports suggest that West Brom are ready to make an £8million bid for him some point next week however I feel that Holt and Graham are possible and wouldn't command a large fee and wage demands would be smallish too. Still, that's what I believe should happen, whether it will or not is a totally different matter entirely.
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| New look back four? |
2 comments:
Nice post Dan.
I think you echo the sentiments of many Hammers when you highlight that full backs and forwards are the areas of most concern. That being said there is still plenty of time to go in the transfer window and I am certain that there are truck loads of deals out there still to happen.
To my mind Big Sam is a shrewed operator. He's been around the block for a while now so I reckon he could have a trick or two up his sleeve. He certainly has better connections that previous managers we have had so when it comes to loan signings I expect him to surprise us to the upside just as he has done in the transfer market.
I cant see us having the cash to make too many more permanent signings without any certainty that messrs Cole, Parker or Green will be leaving so its probably going to be the loan market for us next.
So, here are my top loan targets:
Centre Forward. In my opinion we need a frontman with composre to compliment our current strikeforce of Cole or Piquionne. These two guys have many strengths but are not the most composed of forwards when it comes to taking chances. They tend to score the instinctive goals but not the ones when they have time to think. This "attribute deficiency" was supposed to be addressed by the signing of Craig Mackail-Smith, someone who can finish for fun, even under pressure, but unfortunately for us he opted to join the Seagulls. There are not many options out there but ones I like include Federico Macheda and Craig Bellamy. Not sure Macheda would like to drop a divison but he could be persuaded especially if Sir Alex drops a hint that his opportunities will be limited this season. The stumbiing block with Bellamy would obviously be his astronomical wages. He knows the club and did well while here before so I feel he could slot straight back in.
Full Back. We need a left back or at least cover for Ilunga. Liverpool have two lads that we could take for a season. Maybe our old boys Clarke and Keen could do us a favour and put in a word. Insua is a young Argentinian left back who did ok under Benitez but was loaned out by Hodgson in favour of Konchesky (not his greatest trade). He's now back on Merseyside but hasn't been allocated a shirt number. Its seems clear he's not part of Kenny's grand plans. More interesting though is the young lad Liverpool signed from Rangers last year, Danny Wilson. It seems he is also out of favour. He can play left back or centre back so could provide ideal cover in both positions. He would be my preferred option. He had a stinker when we beat the Reds 3-1 last season so he's probably a closet Hammers fan.
Doubt any of these will come off but its worth throwing the thoughts out there as we approach the first kick off in this pivotal season in our history.
Very good shout with Macheda, scored a couple of great finishes in a pre-season game with United a week or so ago - Bellamy a good call as-well but I don't think that will happen unless City pay half of his wages. Links to Liverpool are possible - not sure on what terms Keen left though still as you say, well over a month to go and who knows what will happen!
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