Eddie's been with us since he was about 5 or something so any money we make is essentially profit (notwithstanding the cost of putting someone through the academy etc which doesn't seem to be taken into account)
Even though I'm one of his harshest critics my feeling is he could perform better in the right team with the right coach although there's the danger he's too set in his ways now
Dunno, at the risk of being all Alan Hansen…he doesn’t have a footballing brain. He often can’t read what the players in and around him are doing, so doesn’t know where to be. Also very much a confidence player, why he scores goals in small clusters of games and then dries up for months….or he tends to perform well in second/third tier competitions
I do like him, I think he’s a good guy…but I don’t really blame Arteta for him never really building on the occasional glimpses of promise he shows
Like with Smith Rowe I genuinely wish him success
To be clear, I'm not blaming Arteta, I think if anything he's shown too much faith in Eddie, he came on in games earlier last season when we needed something and was useless
He’s never been good enough but I understand why the club gave him a new deal when they did. Time to move on though for all parties.
I see the Ammers are close to agreeing a deal to sign Fullkrug from Dortmund. Have to say tip of the cap to them if they get that one over the line, he’s a menace that lad…creates all kinds of uncertainty in defensive areas.
Needs to go and see a private dentist to get an implant put in though
Again, our annoying transfer and youth development czars show themselves off for the incompetent clowns they have become.
Its almost certain that we are going to get less for Eddie, a striker, than we are getting for Smith Rowe, a never present midfielder. To add further insult to the price tag, we sold another striker, Balogun (who had only 10% of the exposure we gave Eddie) to Monaco for more than double the price (£40m) just a year ago! A player we believed Eddie was far ahead of and never gave a chance to prove or disprove this in the first team.
I mean what what does that say about the way we rate our youth talents...no one else values the way we judge talents...we keep hyping and backing the wrong horses (Saka the only recent exception so far) and end up losing value like Gnarby, Martinez, Szcesney, Eze, Malen and now possibly this kid, Chido Obi-Martins for pittances.
I said it a year ago that we would regret retaining Eddie, as he only flattered to deceive and had been shown not to be up to the task and we could do better with either recruiting or promoting a younger player. One Havertz year later and this is clearly the case, with the whole world recognising it and pricing him like a striker coming from a newly promoted championship team!! We just need to do something about the way we nurture, identify and retain talent, its getting too obvious and we will keep getting targeted by other teams if we continue on this road.
Love the player, showed up Havertz for the liability he was to the team.
Would have been a decent prospect for us if we weren't traditionally ageist and obviously had his compatriot playing for us already.
I like the way West Ham has continued recruiting after Moyes, who I believe did a splendid job in that department too. They are also after Fofana and I hope if he doesn't go to Milan he changes his mind and chooses them over Man U (wishful thinking though).