The end of the road for this West Ham duo?

Much of the focus of West Ham’s transfer window has so far been upon the positive intent behind the four new captures so early on in the summer – very unlike West Ham it must be said! To some extent, this has shifted attention away from the fact that there are still several players under contract and drawing wages, who surely do not form part of Sam Allardyce’s plans for the coming season.

Indeed you could be forgiven for forgetting that Modibo Maiga and Alou Diarra remain on the books at West Ham. Neither player, during their time at the club, have shown anywhere near enough promise to suggest that they will ever go on to become important players for the Hammers.

Maiga still has two years left to run on his contract whilst Diarra has one more year. Keeping them at the club beyond this summer will use up valuable money on wages that could well impact on the ability to buy other players, due to the financial fair play regulations. Therefore, it is surely imperative that both are let go in this window – on free transfers if necessary.  

In his two seasons at Upton Park, Maiga has scored just three goals in 31 Premier League appearances, 18 of which were from the subs bench. This says a lot about his lack of appearances, and also his lack of impact when he has played. 

Watching him play generally also has been quite a painful experience for West Ham supporters, who saw someone who consistently struggled to have any sort of impact on games, at times making you feel as though 10 men might as well have been on the pitch. 

To be fair to him, Maiga has also had a few fleeting moments of brilliance in a West Ham shirt. There was the wonder goal against Southampton a couple of years ago, and of course his winner against Tottenham Hotspur in the Capital One cup last season, which has probably written him into West Ham folklore for years to come.

Another quality addition to the forward line is highly necessary this summer for the Hammers, with Andy Carroll, Carlton Cole and Mauro Zarate the only first team strikers currently at the club aside from Maiga. Therefore, freeing up the Mali international’s wages could be an important step in signing a new one. After all, West Ham supporters don’t want to see a repeat of the lack of striking options at the start of last season. 

As for Alou Diarra, most West Ham fans will be scratching their heads wondering how the French midfielder still remains at the club. Aside from being injured for two lengthy periods during his two years in east London, Diarra has twice made outspoken remarks describing his unhappiness at what he saw as broken promises about his role at the club. He even described his decision to move to West Ham as ‘a bad career choice’.  

This attitude, alongside the fact that he would definitely be below both Mark Noble and Cheikhou Kouyate in the pecking order for the holding midfield role, means that Diarra would be extremely unlikely to add to his meagre 6 appearances for the club next season. The central midfield area is now one that looks fairly strong for the Hammers, following the summer additions of Kouyate and Diego Poyet. Therefore, Diarra is someone who can be dispensed with as soon as possible.  

The squad appears to be developing quite nicely this summer, and removing some of the deadwood such as Maiga and Diarra is surely an important part of this process.