West Ham fans woke up to Tony Cottee saying “West Ham must push the boat out to sign Michael Owen, when I read this it got me thinking, should we sign youth or experience?
We have been linked with umpteenth amount of players already, including a 7 million pound purchase of Bas Dost, top scorer in the Dutch league helping Heerenveen secure fifth place and Europa league qualification; he scored 32 goals in 34 appearances.
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The 22 year old to me is a much more appealing signing than that of Owen, he has potential and could become a big star. Now on the negative, Dost is young and could be a flop in the Premiership
as Alfonso Alves was with Middlesbrough. After all 7 Million pound would swallow most of our budget.
But I guess the real question is, should we rely on experienced pros who have been there and done it or youth and prospects? Is it time to give Montano and Hall a go? Or should we fill the team with experience and proven Premiership quality in Owen and Nigel Reo-Coker and Rio Ferdinand. Now there is no denying, Rio would be a good signing to help the youth for the season in a coaching role, and I firmly believe he still has a season left in him.
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I am all for Hall and some of the youth to get a run out, but next season is too important to risk games, so I believe it is important to get a mixture of experienced young players, like Victor Moses and Matt Jarvis, who have quality as well as experience in the Premiership. But Owen and Reo Coker in the squad would also be important to add experience and quality into a squad that needs bulking up.
Next season will be a long tough season for the Hammers and I’m sure Big Sam has a plan, and he has set out his stall with that big money offer, and I’ll be honest those stat do make me interested in
the boy.
Now to answer that original question, youth or experience? For me it is vital to have a mixture, youth with give us flair, exuberance, speed, excitement. Players like Clyne, Moses, Jarvis, and Dost are players that would bring all that. But it is vital to have that experience like Owen bringing him off the bench could be huge, watching him bang the goals of the bench could prove to be the difference, still only Sam knows what he wants, but I’m sure one youth player will get his chance next season.
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Thought his name was Bost !!
We can never afford to buy quality players in the prime of their careers (24-28) so we always end up having to choose between youth and experience. In recent years we have bought a succession of players well past their best.
There is an argument for an experienced centre half to complement Tomkins and Reid, but otherwise we should definitely by trying to buy good young players.
There is plenty of experience in the squad already with Green, Nolan, Taylor etc and even players like Noble and Cole have been round the block a few times now. I would hope that most of our signings this year are under 25 unless we can get a real class player like Joe Cole in.
Michael Owen is finished. He can’t stay fit and his type of player is increasingly redundant in the modern game anyway.
Dost is his name, its a strong technical striker…i should take him.
We’ve no chance for Dost, there are other more attractive clubs out there in for him.
Montano, Hall etc need to be loaned out at Championship/L1 level first.
As for older players, while arguably Allardyce in the past did well with Campo/Djorkaeff/Hierro etc let’s not forget Carew, Diop and Faye. We’ve had enough expensive mistakes in the past like Ljungberg and Dyer and.
Also, no chance for Moses either (though he’d fit the system for sure), let’s be realistic…
Reo-Coker wouldn’t add anything to the central midfield either, he’s no better than what we have let alone his previous spell ending the way it did.