West Ham Online

southbankbornnbred wrote: ↑16 Feb 2025, 10:14

Sir Alf" wrote: ↑16 Feb 2025, 09:44 Good summary Nutsin. Potter reverted to a back 4 and got central midfield wrong relying on the slowest double pivot central midfield in the Premiership. A back 3 seems a better fit but also when Paqueta dropped deeper we had 3 in the central mid and stopped Brentford having so much space to run into when they countered. As u say, Paqueta has to play deeper with the game ahead of him.

Not writing Potter off yet but he has to learn we cannot  play a 2 person central midfield of Alvarez and Soucek and that Mavro in a 4 man back 4 us going to be risky. Hopefully wont see either mistakes repeated?  Main other thing we need is Ferguson and Todibo to get and stay fit

Yeah, interesting summaries, Alf and Nutsin.

I also think it’s far too early to judge Potter. These are not his players and there’s just no way he’d have signed most of them. I’m not saying he’ll rip it up at West Ham (who knows), but his teams don’t generally look like us right now.

This old, slow and tired squad has a LOT of problems. But by far the biggest problem I can see is in central defence.

Nutsin summed it up nicely: “Mavrapanos still getting in the side as a starter makes you wonder just how good he must show at practice all week because on match day he is always one of the worse players on the field.”

Its not that Mavrapanos is any good - he’s fucking terrible. A mistake waiting to happen. It’s just that we don’t have any depth, and the other centre halves are also woeful - or injury prone.

We’ve spent (or agreed to spend) a small  fortune on some absolute dross. Kilman is the worst £40m footballer I’ve ever seen. He has the turning circle of an oil tanker and regularly gets destroyed for pace over ten yards - let alone 20+. It means we can’t really play, or get, high up the pitch quickly enough. So he forces us to play a way that Potter probably doesn’t want. Absolute waste of that huge outlay. Slow, off the pace mentally, and too easily exposed because of it. His saving grace is that he doesn’t really make “mistakes” like Mavrapanos - and he is a battler. It’s just that his physical attributes are poor for the modern Premier League, where opponents are often athletes more than footballers.

Mavrapanos was in excess of £20m. We've agreed to spend £34m on Todibo, who is a good player but injury prone - and clearly nursing his way through the season. And we spent £30m on Aguerd who started well, deteriorated under Moyes and then got loaned out by a hopeless manager who had no idea what he was doing.

Thats £125m worth of “talent” and we’re catastrophically poor at the back.

Fixing that will take some doing. Who, for example, will want to sign Kilman at his fee/wages - unless it’s a move like a return to Wolves for half the money?

Moyes and Lopetegui royally lumped us in it.

A combined age of 139 years.

Older than the club itself.

Are testimonials still played?

If so, one for Antonio with proceeds going towards his car repair bill.

Could be one of the pre-season games.

I think the decision on Antonio will be made later in the piece.  Ideally he's available next season as 3rd striker, but they won't know in all liklihood until last knocking on his contract or even pre-season.  Doesn't mean he's definitely being retained....just means he's not definitely being released.

With how Cresswell has played, I'm surprised he's not been given an extra season.  He's looked notably more competent than a number of our other defenders, and is the only one amongst them capable of actually verbally organising the defence it would seem.

Antonio was the perfect striker for managers who don't create chances.

Son no surprises if Potter wants to keep him.

As long as he was up to it, I'd say give Antonio a token 5 minute jog out as a Sub right at the end. Have a little kick about and go off to a standing ovation on a well deserved lap of honour with the other servants rather than go limping on in to another season he's unlikely to feature much. It's done, Mic, let it go and enjoy your retirement on a high. The season is also well and truly over with nothing to really play for, so theirs no risk of it going wrong for the Team in doing so. Would also finally give the fans something to heartedly cheer that actually means something from a wretched season otherwise for everyone.

The right decision on all
Antonio is out of contract I believe & should also go
Zouma also?
No more sentimental contracts 

Massive Attack" wrote: ↑09 May 2025, 13:03 West Ham United can confirm that Aaron Cresswell, Łukasz Fabiański, Vladimír Coufal and Danny Ings will leave the Club when their contracts expire at the end of the 2024/25 season. They will depart at the end of the season with our love and appreciation for their contribution during a period that brought memorable success.  We will have the opportunity to pay tribute to their West Ham United careers and achievements over the coming weeks, with our final Premier League home match of the season on Sunday 18 May against Nottingham Forest providing a chance for a fond farewell.


Looks like I've got my wish the process of clearing the decks well under way. Apart from that leech Ings, all have been fantastic servants who have done our Club proud.  

 

Antonio scored 1 goal in 15 games this season, before he wrapped his car around a tree.

Potter's perfect striker.

Still be better than Ings on one leg

Gank wrote: ↑09 May 2025, 13:07 What about Antonio?

 

Gank wrote: ↑09 May 2025, 13:07 What about Antonio?

Gank wrote: ↑09 May 2025, 13:07 What about Antonio?

What about Antonio?

West Ham United can confirm that Aaron Cresswell, Łukasz Fabiański, Vladimír Coufal and Danny Ings will leave the Club when their contracts expire at the end of the 2024/25 season. They will depart at the end of the season with our love and appreciation for their contribution during a period that brought memorable success.  We will have the opportunity to pay tribute to their West Ham United careers and achievements over the coming weeks, with our final Premier League home match of the season on Sunday 18 May against Nottingham Forest providing a chance for a fond farewell.


Looks like I've got my wish the process of clearing the decks well under way. Apart from that leech Ings, all have been fantastic servants who have done our Club proud.  

We were linked to the Colombian midfielder Ricardo Ríos a few weeks ago. He definitely looks like the real deal...a proper midfield general with quick feet, presence and shock, horror some actual mobility. Nah! He'll probably go to France or Red Fucking Bull Leipzig

To be honest, I have little faith in the Club doing the right thing either by sacking the hapless clown Potter, as well as the sales etc that need to happen to make us better. They've really made a pigs ear of all this and it is a mess. 

My thoughts on the Squad is more what I want to happen, rather than will they come to their senses and go down that line themselves. 

Your squad is much better, a real improvement, we've just approached it in different ways.  Would there be an issue with Foderingham seeing the other two keepers leave and still being number two? I don't know, just wondering.

It would require Potter to change his system, I think he's capable of that, but also requires that the new players needed to fill your gaps are secured in time and are upgrades on what we have right now. I don't have any faith that we can do that 

What we have here is an example of how two people can have different views on WHO and still be civil about it. Watch and learn, morons of WHO!

I don't look at the Squad like that until I bring in the players in the Summer as well. My best team would consist something like:


New Keeper

Wan-Bissaka Todibo Kilman Emerson

New Midfielder New Midfielder 

Bowen Kudus Summerville 

New Striker


Rest of the Squad:

Foderingham
Ward-Prowse 
Soucek
Guilherme 
Irving 
Ferguson - Only for a reasonable Fee 
Scarles
Potts
Earthy
Marshall
Kante

And add more new signings if the space allows it - can't keep up with what the rules are these days on age etc. But something along those lines works for me. 

And as much as I despise Dildo Dave, he isn't completely useless in the market as Wan-Bissaka on course for HotY has proved and at a reasonable price too.

I also forgot to mention the sales/release of Aguerd, Zouma, Cornet to add to the coffers as well, who are all out on loan and likely to leave. That'll be important in how much we bring in and also wages saved for PSR.

Massive Attack, whilst I can't argue against the idea of getting rid of all of those on a meritocracy, if we really do need to sell before buying I think your best team ends up being:

Foderingham Todibo Kilman AguerdWan Bissaka Emerson Kante Irvine Guilherme Bowen Kudus With a subs bench of: Hegyi, Casey, Scarles, Guilherme, Marshall, Summerville 

That's actually a weaker team than we have now so you're relying heavily on this band of amateurs making some very strong signings to replace those in this squad who you're keeping which makes us stronger than the squad we currently have.

I don't trust them to be able to do that, so I can't agree with your list of outgoings even if I agree that they don't deserve to be here. Horrible situation.

That summary shows how fucked we are.
Especially since I'd be adding Emerson and Ward-Prowse to the "sell" list
Kilman too in an ideal world but that's completely implausible

Sell -

Mavropanos, Areola, Rodriguez, Alvarez, Fullkrug, Paqueta (if he aint already been banned)

Say goodbye to those who's contract are up -

Ings, Cresswell, Coufal, Antonio, Fabianski 

Send Soler back to PSG

Sack Potter and get in a much better alternative. 

Keep the rest.

Then re-distribute the money brought in for sales and add it to the limited pot the poison dwarf shitcunt will allow us to play with in the market for a new manager.
 

Areola
Mavropanos - Todibo - Kilman
Wan Bissaka - Emerson
Paqueta - Kante
Bowen - Fullkrug - Kudus

Foderingham
Casey - Aguerd - Cresswell
Coufal - Scarles
Alvarez - Soler
Guilherme - Marshall - Summerville

That's my two best squads using what appears to be Potter's favoured formation.

It doesn't feature Fabianski, Ward-Prowse, Antonio, Ings, Rodriguez, Soucek, Irving, Earthy, or Potts

Some of you might use those I haven't included to swap in for someone I have.

Not much sale value on my list of non-starters, maybe £30million, but a LOT of wages freed up so we might be looking at a marquis free transfer, we could afford to pay big on wages but not signing on fee.

It also means giving grandad Cresswell another year and moving him into the back three which is tragic and that's the first thing I'd address by looking for a better centre back. My choice would be Branthwaite if we could get him - do it now and don't renew Cresswell.

Similarly for Coufal, although he is a useful backup for Wan Bissaka so perhaps less urgent but still a need to improve and best to avoid renewing his contract (if he even wants to) if we can get better in quickly. My preference would be Kyle Walker-Peters.

Combining the two squads gives us quite a bit of versatility and whilst it leaves us with one proper striker who we don't really know if is injury-prone or was just unlucky this season, that's the one position I don't mind throwing a succession of younger players into when needed. It's much less pressure for a young striker than elsewhere, they either miss but get credit for positional awareness to create the opportunity or they score and are a hero. We've moaned about the lack of strikers for years but we never gamble on our youngest here like we did with Defoe.

It's not a great squad and obviously we can - and should - have more than 22 registered seniors but if we have to sell before we buy, we're not going to create enough money to strengthen this mess unless we have a guaranteed strong signing lined up at the moment we sell one of the named players in the two squads and even then it has to be the same position.

What a mess!

Mad Ferret" wrote: ↑08 May 2025, 07:33 Have been told that we're activating the buy-back clause for Flynn Downes.

Mr Anon" wrote: ↑08 May 2025, 07:40

Mad Ferret" wrote: ↑08 May 2025, 07:33 Have been told that we're activating the buy-back clause for Flynn Downes.

the same source as your Kappa one?

Mad Ferret" wrote: ↑08 May 2025, 07:33 Have been told that we're activating the buy-back clause for Flynn Downes.