Over the weekend West Ham were linked with Manchester City and England midfielder James Milner…now my first reaction to this bit of transfer gossip was ‘well that’s hardly an inspiring signing.’
Are you on Facebook? Excellent, so are we http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/ForeverWestHamcom/200938616608282
Having given it some thought I’ve changed my mind, whilst Milner may not be an explosive, dynamic winger or a central midfield maestro along the lines of a Gerrard or a Lampard. What he is (depending on where you play him) is a solid and consistent performer.
Obviously it’s all transfer tittle tattle at the moment but with Sheik Mansour flexing his financial muscles having already ensnared Fernandinho and Jesus Navas, surely Milner days at Eastlands are numbered; especially with next season being a World Cup year, so it’s not so farfetched that we could well be interested.
We lack width down the right hand side and Milner does possess a sweet right foot, perfect for Carroll to feed off of, you could really see Milner and Jarvis in tandem wreaking havoc for Premier League full-backs. Forever whipping crosses in for big Andy and switching wings during games with both being comfortable on either flank to give the opposition constant problems.
I think fans that dismiss the potential signing of Milner need a bit of a reality check…we finished 10th in the league last season, a fantastic first season back and a player of Milner’s ability and experience would be perfect to improve the quality and depth of the squad. Last season with Mark Noble crocked and with Alou Diarra having took his ball back home to France we were left to play matches with Gary O’Neil in central midfield… wouldn’t Milner for O’Neil be a significant step up? I’d say so.
Looking for experience? Just want to be heard outside of the Boleyn? We are currently looking for writers, drop us an email at foreverwestham@snack-media.com for more details
We’re building something at West Ham, we’re building a side worthy of the Olympic Stadium and it appears the core of that team is going to be English; surely James Milner fits perfectly into this ethos.
Hopefully this is a rumour with some truth to it.
Would be a fantastic signing. Milner often gets stick because he’s not as glamorous as the players he is surrounded by but there is a reason he is in the company of so many quality footballers. He actually used to have a lot of flair about him when he was younger, a good solid winger, now it’s difficult for him to show that in a more central role. Would love to stick him out on the wing again. And yes, the English factor makes it a very attractive signing.
Hell Yeah I wouldn’t say no to Milner in our team
No way we will sell him so don’t get overexcited about this blog.
Blue Al,
We’re West Ham fans, we get overexcited when we’re not bottom 3 at Christmas!
A top ‘half of the table’ player. West Ham’s purposeful move to replace ‘lower half of the table’ players with guys of this quality is why we will finish top half for the next few seasons. Only a rumour at the moment – Fingers crossed
Well, we’ll see but what really pees me off is when I see a striker of the quality of Tevez being sold for £10 million and us spending £15 million on somebody who still has a questionmark over them. Why didn’t we try and get him back to UP? I don’t like the amount of potential loan signings being touted, they have no vested interest in doing well for the club and developing talent for someone else to benefit from seems…..well completely bonkers. We haven’t fared well with signings from Latin America, so why are we chasing an Ecuadorian with no experience of the PL when we could go after home grown talent, such as young Tom Ince. I am not convinced that we are yet building a team fit for the OS and SA’s statement that buying better players will deliver better performances is still up for debate to me with the signings made to date and those we are linked with. It is well known we need another quality striker but who in their right mind would want to join us if SA is only going to play one up front. We did well with what we had last year and we do have an opportunity to move forward; just very underwhelmed by the business done so far and those we are being linked with; think we deserve and should be doing better business.
Easy said when it’s not your money pal!!
We have to be realistic with who we buy, Tevez for instance would expect £250k per WEEK, totally out of our budget.
We spent the majority of our budget getting Carroll, and I’m glad we got him.
There are far too many fantasy football fans on these forums.
You think for one minute Juventus is paying him £250k a week, get real. We got a player who has a lot to prove still and although a better all round player than Carlton C has hardly been more prolific than him over the last two seasons. If we play one up front as Allardyce seems to prefer then you tell me where the rest of the goals are going to come from that will enable an improvement on 10th place. We will see what we end up with come start of the season.
Here we go again, why do you claim Carroll wasn’t prolific with 7 goals in 23 games yet praise Tevez for his prolific 6 in 26 games for us?
Some comments on here beggar belief!!
Hahaha the irony that we should have bought tevez for 10m rather than Carroll as he is untested? Then your stating that we should buy ince for 8m+ (no top flight experience) rather than 3m on a player who is an established international and played in la liga? Get back to playing fantasy football mate! Tevezs wages blow the Carroll deal out of the water and as if Carlos is going to come back to us?
As for Milner, would love him at the bolyne, would easily be 1 of our best players but it won’t happen. There is likely to be a large fee involved and he will likely have offers from teams playing European football, possibly champions league
You been sniffing something or what. I never said Carroll was untested just that he has lots still to prove and has hardly had the most prolific of times during the last two seasons. At least Ince plays in this country and this smacks of the Barrera deal all over, and he had also played in La Liga and was a Mexico international. The only fantasy land here….mate is you thinking you know what you’re talking about.
What Planet?
Would absolutely love him at West Ham, but I can’t see it happening. If he’s to leave the second best team in the country, I doubt be willing to take such a step down that he won’t even be playing in Europe. Having said that, if we manage to pull this off we’ll be in for an interesting and exciting season come August. What a statement of intent that would be, signing 2 decent England internationals with the OS move just 3 years away. COYI.
We are not after James Milner
We have not even asked
and we are not going to
Per Hugh Southon journo and friend of Gold and Sullivan who gets pretty much all our transfers right
Jman
with the new rules coming in we could not afford Tevez 300k a week wages
or even half that
He loves us but I doubt enough to take a 200k a week wage cut
It aint gonna happen so forget it.
Once again just idle chit chat to fill copy on a slow day! Milner even if he wanted too, is not coming to West Ham! Don’t get me wrong I would be absolutely delighted to have him but we have as much chance of signing milner as we have of signing Sinclair! Which is a real shame! As it would show that the clubs big words about signing quality players to make us a quality team moving forward not seem like empty words! Reality is that we will be scambling around in the bargain dustbin just to make up the numbers after all the players we have had to let go! We can forget top ten at this rate! We are in the same place as last year but with an even smaller squad.(which was too small then!). We desperately need more goals but not sure if we can attract the right kind of quality striker when they know they would hardly play and always be second fiddle to AC. More creativity in midfield and out right, and more cover in defence with a fullback a priority! All at a higher quality than we currently have! But i just know this is not going to happen! I will be very angry and fearful if this shopping list is not seriously considered and even more so if we continue to desperately rake about in the transfer bargain bucket! Pre season nerves? Hope so! COYI!
Not exactly filled with the joys of summer are you !!
So far we’ve done some great business in the window, getting rid of the dead wood and bringing in real quality.
You might also take into account that David Gold owns a few hundred shops, not a few hundred oil wells.
For where we are financially (and where we was only a few years ago) we are moving in the right direction, we are going to be looking for loanees, and there will be some top players available once the squad lists are announced.
Be patient fella and keep the faith.
this would be massive for us ..always thought he was a good
consistent player who knows what IS needed in the PL and an international n’all.
Hope rumour Is true
CoYI
Yep he will do me. Hope some truth to this one coyi
Take him any day, real class, just what we need. If sam can pull tis one off we could do even better next season.COYI
Milner is a player ive always liked, really commited, and in a way, no one has seen the best of him yet, for a long time, with that in mind, that’s a recipe for success
Lets hope this is not a story made up,
Milner will do me
COYI
much rather sign redmond from brum, quicker and younger.
WE ARE NOT EVEN TRYING TO SIGN MILNER
Hope that;’s clear this time it’s made up twitter lies as normal at this time of year
Milner,no chance,he’s on £65k a week,we can’t afford that and City want to sell,not loan,were screwed for cash after Carroll deal and can only afford bosman/loan deals,we put all our eggs in the Carroll basket and were gonna pay for it,bottom 6 season ahead,mark my words!
We overstretched last season getting carrol and made ourselves mid table. we’ve spent the budget this season on keeping carrol to maintain that mid table spot. anyone else coming in is a bonus and would see us consolidate top 10 place. Someone like Milner would be an excellent and surprising bonus. Versatile, very good prem player, fills the right positions and works hard for the team. Whether on a permanent transfer or a loan this would be a bit of a coup for us.
Apologies to Big Andy for misspelling his name twice!