Written by @farehamhammer
I like Manuel Lanzini, skilful, scores goals and plays football with a smile on his face, and I hope stays with us for a few seasons. But all things said it would not be an absolute disaster if Lanzini did get sold. Some will scream we will “always be a selling Club”. The simple truth is we are ALL selling Clubs. As we saw with Neymar, if a player wants a move he gets it. A lot of the moves are not even initiated by the player but by greedy agents! Like houses every time a player gets sold an agent makes a lot dough. Yes, players are under contract and you can hold them to contract, but at what cost? They play up like spoilt brats and the whole team suffers as a result. Players in most instances, don’t care one iota about how their actions cost a Club, there are very few James Collins about! This season Manuel Lanzini’s body language has been poor, he has been very inconsistent. His head may well be turned by meeting up with Messi and Co while on international duty with Argentina who knows? Some say he is aggrieved because our tight arsed Chairman have kept him on 35,000 grand a week, despite promising Lanzini a new contract during the last two windows.
Some say that The Board have tried to get him to sign a new contract, but he has rebuffed approaches to sit down for Contract talks. Either way the situation needs to get sorted early in The Summer window. Should Lanzini be off and we get good money for him, and if The Board broke the habit of a life time and gave the manager the proceeds of the sale. It would not be the disaster some people make out it would be. It would give us the chance to complete a major overhaul of our midfield, which make no mistake is badly needed. Our midfield against Chelsea was weak, unbalanced and overrun putting enormous pressure on our defence, offering no protection what so ever. Attacking wise, they are slow in thought and movement, no pace and movement or creativity. People say to me Javier Hernandez’s legs have gone or he offers nothing outside the box. Missing the point, I’m afraid. In and around the box Hernandez is not just a goal scorer, he is one of the best in the business! Goals win football matches, but Hernandez or anyone else, does not stand a chance when he is expected to drop deep with his back to goal, in an effort to get the ball. More often than not the ball is just hoofed forward! This has not been the case just for this season but several seasons. God how we miss Yossi Benayoun in his prime!
But it is not all doom and gloom. I know it has been in patches, but I really like Joao Mario he most certainly is on the same wavelength as Arnie. Mario actually plays better when Manuel Lanzini is not playing. He has more end product than Lanzini with his final ball, not as good as Lanzini dribbling wise, but a different sort of playmaker, better decision maker, creates more chances, knows how and when to bring the others into play, also knows when to slow the game down when needed. It is clear the boy likes The Club and wants to be at West Ham. Obviously not anywhere near £39 million but if a deal can be done do it. We need more than just Mario to cure our midfield ills. It is no secret that Fulham’s Tom Cairney, was sitting behind David Moyes at Stamford Bridge. I like Ex prefer Norwich’s James Maddison, but would be happy with Tom Cairney. Yet you get some screaming “Bang average!” “Not the next level!” Another Snodgrass “Give it a rest man! Cairney, may be a late developer but has been fantastic for Fulham, who play Football the right way.
Tom Cairney scores goals, is a beautiful passer of the ball and can spot a pass early, a good decision maker, an intelligent footballer. I would be happy to see him at West Ham. What I don’t want to see The Club do is, start signing players like Fernando Torres or crap from relegated Clubs. What is the point in that? A lot of the negativity about being linked with players like Cairney, is solely because people have become ABSOLUTELY OBSESSED with the next level stuff that they have lost their enjoyment in supporting West Ham! I have been there and got the T-Shirt! At times I would get so obsessed with driving The Chairman out of Town, I became absolutely negative about anything West Ham related. Next Level? Yes, I still believe in the Promised land, but realistically it is going to take longer. The midfield surgery must not stop at signing Mario and Cairney, we need a good defensive midfielder. If we keep Mario, the obvious target would be his international team mate. William Carvalho, somehow after Sullivan’s ‘phantom bid’ in the summer that is a no go. With a bit of luck, we will sign Anderlecht’s Leander Dendoncker, a very good defensive midfielder. Dendoncker’s form has been up and down since he failed to sign for us on the January Deadline Day.
We also welcome Pedro Obiang back next season, who you could also employ as a CDM. We also have Cheikhou Kouyaté, whom I love to see driving forward. The problem with Kouyaté is his positional sense and his ability to pick up his man is poor. If we did bring in three quality midfielders I can see either Kouyaté or Obiang getting sold. We also need to complete the surgery of the midfield, by signing someone with a bit of pace who can play out wide. In a poor season the one bright spot has been, that our famed Academy has unearthed another Jewel in Declan Rice. Rice has done himself and The Club proud. In Nathan Holland we have another outstanding talent who plays out wide, he is a very quick and direct runner. Nathan has all the ability to make the step up to the first team. Yes, there are other areas that need strengthening, but the midfield is any team’s engine, ours has been out of sorts for too long, and we have paid a heavy price for it. Sort the midfield out and WE WILL take a step towards the next level!
We are more than a football Club, we’re a way of life!
COYI!!
FarehamHammer!!!
(Edited by Danny Twigg)
