It was a quiet January window for West Ham United, but they made up for lost ground with a decent post-transfer window signing. West Ham have signed Brazilian forward Nene on loan until the end of the season. The former Monaco and Paris Saint Germain striker was a free agent after leaving Al-Gharafa Sports Club, and has been brought in to cover for the long-term injury to Andy Carroll and also as short-term cover for the also-injured Carlton Cole.
He’s been a regular goalscorer for his previous clubs, although according to whufc.com the man sees his real strength lying in his ability to provide assists. It’s great news for the club that we have another option available up front should current forwards Enner Valencia and Diafra Sakho need a substitution at any point in the next few weeks (which is extremely possible.)
However, as we are West Ham United, the signing was reportedly not without issue. Rumour has it that the transfer nearly didn’t go through owing to an argument between David Sullivan and Sam Allardyce.
Sullivan and Allardyce’s relationship is rumoured to be rapidly deteriorating, and while we certainly needed another striker on our books I do wonder – is the signing of Nene nothing more than a pawn in the power struggle between David Sullivan and Sam Allardyce?
Reportedly, Sullivan was insistent on signing Nene with Allardyce less than convinced—and so Sullivan made the deal without Allardyce’s blessing or even cooperation. During the negotiations, rapid rumours spread online that Allardyce had actually left the club – rumours that were rubbished equally quickly.
No matter what club you are, it’s difficult when the manager does not see eye-to-eye with he who holds the purse strings – and this isn’t the first time word has gone around that Sullivan has signed players that Allardyce did not want at the club. Both Mauro Zarate and Diafra Sakho were ‘Sullivan signings’ – and the former claimed that the reason he was not given any playing time at the club was owing to “personal reasons” as Allardyce had not wanted him there.
However, Zarate’s remarks should be taken with a grain of salt. When it comes to Sam refusing to play “Sullivan signings,” there are two sides to the coin. Yes, Allardyce was not keen to play Mauro Zarate (and may have had a point given that he is not even match fit enough to play regular football for 17th placed Queens Park Rangers) but goal scoring hero Diafra Sakho is also a Sullivan signing, and there is no argument for him not to be played – and so he gets regular football.
The question is whether or not Sam Allardyce will be keen to play our latest ‘Sullivan’ signing, Nene. Fortunately for us all, circumstances dictate that the new signing will get a chance to let his skills do the deciding for him. After all, with our striker “crisis” looming – although please don’t worry, Valencia and Sakho are fine – Sam Allardyce has confirmed that Nene is likely to feature at Crystal Palace on Saturday. He has also stated Nene would most likely have been involved even without the latest injury to Carlton Cole, which is a good statement of intent.
Hopefully he will prove to be a smart signing—and if so, Allardyce will not let pride take place over letting talent shine on the pitch. After all, Nene was signed to end a specific crisis – not acerbate another ‘crisis’ taking place off the pitch in the boardroom. Welcome to West Ham, Nene.
West Ham plays 2 games in 4 days from 28-02-2015 with Palace & Chelsea on 3rd Mar with both clubs coming to Upton Park.
Above expectations for 2 games = 6 points
Good return = 4 points
Average return = 3 points
Bad return = 2, 1 or even zero points before an 11 day break when we go to Emirates Stadium to face Arsenal on 14th March. The only positive achieved from a bad return of 1 point will mean West Ham will have reached the goal and 1st objective of all Premier League clubs being a total of 40 points and would have been the 8th Premier League club to have achieved Premier League survival for 2015-2016 season’s participation, but after West Ham’s disgraceful 1-3 home loss to Crystal Palace, that honor of becoming the 8th Premier League club to have gained safety has now gone to Swansea and the time has now come for West Ham to oust this stubborn, arrogant manager who cannot seem to see the wood for the trees. He had one of the most potent strike forces in world football in Sahko and Valencia and others to work with but at the first available opportunity he returned to his old fashioned and outdated partnership of Andy Carroll and Kevin Nolan, and as a result of this narrow sighted tactics the momentum of the club’s great start was wasted when those 2 ruined the show which led to West Ham slipping from 3rd place just before Xmas to now 9th after Swansea won yesterdayday, 28th Feb, this is nothing short of a disgrace, because thanks to the input of Teddy Sheringham and the club’s owners Sam had a great squad to work with and real talent, whom he since snubbed for Carroll and Nolan, no Harry Redknapp needs to be hired now and the club sold off to a rich middle eastern consortium who are interested in buying the club so as to take them into the Olympic stadium that housed 80,000 seated during the Olympics, that’s more than Man Utd can house, come one you 2 Davids, sack Sam, put in Harry and sell the club to people who can handle a club the size that the area of the nation’s capital deserves. This club needs taking to the next level and Sam Allardyce, David Sullivan and David Gold are not the men to do it!