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Strange goings-on down at West Ham’s home Upton Park

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Aaron CresswellI tend to spend my entire summer with my head buried fully in the sand whilst West Ham do their transfer business. It’s just a never-ending self-fulfilling prophecy; West Ham express interest/put a bid in, Twitter goes mad, player signs for someone else, and then everyone blames Sam Allardyce and the Chairman for killing the club. But this year, some sort of witchcraft seems to be bewitching Upton Park because this year, we’ve signed people. Yes— people, plural.

Perhaps West Ham were serious about improving this year. So far we seem to have been busy in the transfer window, having signed striker Mauro Zarate, midfielder Cheikhou Kouyate, and defender Aaron Cresswell. The signing of midfielder Diego Poyet also appears to be imminent, according to his extremely subtle tweet, which included the #COYI hashtag. It’s great news for Hammers fans, but somewhere Jack Sullivan is very unhappy at having the rug pulled out from under his transfer exclusive.

For the long-suffering Hammers who just about survived the oft-tedious football of last season, are we seeing reason to be cheerful about the effort and outcome of our transfers so far?

Aaron Cresswell is a 24-year-old defender from Ipswich Town, who made a good impact in his signing speech, telling the fans “It’s a massive club and I can’t wait to get ready for the season ahead.” (Whufc.com) Left-back Cresswell has signed on a five-year contract, and although having signed any left-back is good news, it’s especially great to have another young English player on our books.

Striker Mauro Zarate comes to us having spent his last season scoring 13 goals in 19 games (and before we slag off the Argentinian league as being easy to score in, let’s just take a moment to reflect on how the Argentinians are getting on at the World Cup. I know, I’m not happy about it either.) This could potentially be the striker of our dreams, if I could only work out how to convince Allardyce to play two up front.

We also gained a strong addition to our squad in the signing of Senegalese midfielder Cheikhou Kouyate from Anderlecht. The Senegalese international can also play in defence; something which could come in handy when we hit our mid-December injury panic.

But wait – according to David Sullivan – there’s more! After signing Kouyate, the joint-chairman has promised fans another four signings prior to the Spurs game. Cresswell being one of them, we should have another 3 still to come, and one of them must be Diego ‘loose lips sink ships’ Poyet.

Midfielder Poyet, son of Gus, has left Championship club Charlton after being named their player of the year for this past season. He is currently a free agent, and is actively and publically angling for a move to West Ham. We would owe Charlton compensation for his signing, but he could be a good deal financially and physically.

With all the new faces coming into Upton Park, we may be looking like a different team next year; something which is not a bad thing at all. We’ve now added a player to our defence, midfield, and attack, and by doing so, have hopefully added strength in every area of the pitch. It seems like a brilliant start for West Ham – I’ll avoid saying it’s too good to be true – and I’m excited to see who else ends up joining our roster in time for August.

What do you think of our new signings? Is this a surprisingly decent start to our transfer activity? Where are we going to put all these midfielders, and why haven’t a top six side signed Diame yet?!?! Let us know your thoughts below.

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10 comments

  • Ryan lee says:

    Yes a good bunch off players but where are they going to play? What formation?. I’d like to see west ham play a 41212with Carroll n zarate up top Morrison playing the free roll behind them! Noble and poyet in the middle wiv kouyate behind them. Reid Tompkins cresswell demel at the back wiv of course Adrian in the sticks. Nolan as the super sub can’t beat that.

  • peter iron says:

    i think that the nearer we get to the O.S move , more players will be prepared sign up for us .

  • banksy says:

    Very happy with the signings so far getting a real buzz for the start of the season. Still want another striker though and i still think mr rhodes fits the bill any more aces up ur sleeves gentlemen?

  • TRB says:

    The signings are good….though I want to see the Argentinian play before I really comment further. Cresswell is an excellent full-back, with pace and a great left foot and Poyet, who is Charlton’s Player of the Year, could be regularly lining up alongside Morrison very soon. I’ve heard great reports about Kouyate, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed about him. Hopefully West Ham won’t be signing Dawson from the Spuds, as he doesn’t have the quality we need. So is there any chance of signing Michu? And a decent right-back if Guy Demel is one his way as recently reported. Joey O’Brien is OK, but I’d rather play Leo Chambers in that position. It’s time to let Diarra and Vaz Te go, though it’s a real shame that Miaga never found his confidence, because on the odd occasion that he did shine, he looked very good.

  • Dave says:

    The three signings we have made, probably 4 in poyet as well are only replacing players we have let go.
    Lets not forget that Cole,Collison,Taylor,McCartney plus 3 loan signings all left, that’s 7 players down on a very weak squad in terms of numbers.
    Is Poyet any better than Morrison ? Didn’t see Poyet dancing round 4 players at white hart lane, so is he better ? time will tell.
    Kouyate – Who knows how he will perform , I reckon he will be alongside Noble, or as my mate mentioned a 3rd centre back when we go to a 5-3-2 formation, which fits cresswell in nicely one side and the new argie up top!
    I reckon we still have about £13m in the kitty, with not much added to last years wage bill with the players we have released.
    That leaves two good players and a few loans still available, but I am also told that the will not do all the budget in the summer and leave a bit in reserve for January this year. makes sense as Morrison could go awol again and who knows about the players who are out of contract next year, ie Diame and Rei., we have all seen players disappear when they don’t want to get injured and take risks with moves imminent.
    Good to see us active though compared to last year !

  • Ken Perry says:

    I agree with trb. Let’s hold our thoughts on Zarate until we see him play premiership football. But what all the signings should bring is much needed pace throughout the team. We need a right back to replace Demel who no longer has the legs for more than 70 minutes of football. The captaincy must be passed to Noble or Read (this may be an added incentive for him to stay) and use Nolan as no more than a late sub by giving Rav a chance to play in the hole behind the front two strikers (we can but dream). O’Brien, Jarvis and Diame can all go (hopefully) if there are to be a further 3 fresh faces to be brought in.

  • roger holcombe says:

    And will FS change the playing formation to

    1 9 1

    after all that’s possibly attacking football

  • beckton Geoff says:

    IM starting to look forward to next season now

  • b venour says:

    I agree with all above we need another striker michu and Richards right rb

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