Summer Silly Season

WITH Andy Carroll’s future up in the air, West Ham have turned their attentions to Ivory Coast hitman Wilfired Bony, so says one of the newspapers this morning.

We’ve got more insider information on this than the newspaper itself. The report suggests Carroll is keen to return to Newcastle when his loan spell at Upton Park expires, which we know is true. Then they report that Big Sam Allardyce has turned to Bony as his replacement. This is also partially true, as per our source at West Ham.

We’ve just been told: “Sam has had the player (Bony) watched out in Africa during the Nations Cup and is a big admirer of him. A scout informed Sam about him two years ago and he has kept tabs on him. But Bony isn’t the only player West Ham are watching. We have scouts all over the world who bring our manager up to date with progress.”

So the newspaper are certainly copped on to the fact that Sam asked for this player to be scouted. West Ham will be looking towards other strikers after Carroll admitted privately that he wants a bigger challenge than West Ham.

The Bony story in the newspaper doesn’t go in to much more than we already know. The summer is a long way off and the Hammers boss could assess a few more strikers before then, but there is some truth to this story in today’s paper. We also know that the reporter writing this one has a decent relationship with Big Sam.


And on the truthmometer

Miaga will be on his way if Sam has been watching him in Africa, he has been absolute shit

To be honest dude I aint watched any of that but I,ll take your word for it , dont rate him , seems to run at players but more often than not f**ksitup

Campo wrote:Miaga will be on his way if Sam has been watching him in Africa, he has been absolute shit

The whole tournament is shit. It is League One standard at best

You are right there Tony , the Mali Nigeria game today was like watching Conference football and it was a major semi-final

The Sun have run a story this morning about Chelsea ‘hijacking’ West Ham’s move for Wilfried Bony.

Obviously, in amongst all the conjecture about Vitesse’s owner being at Stamford Bridge on Monday night to watch Russia against Brazil, there’s also an obligatory reference to Bony being the ‘new Didier Drogba’.

That’s a rule with Bony – nothing can be written about him without mentioning Drogba at least once.

“Also present were Vitesse owner Merab Jordania, who has close links with Blues supremo Roman Abramovich, and Erwin Kasakowski, managing director of the Dutch club.

The main topic of conversation between the four was 24-year-old Bony, a player similar in style to his fellow countryman and ex-Chelsea favourite Didier Drogba.

And Chelsea are now in pole position to seal a four-year deal for him worth £80,000 a week.”

They’re in pole position, are they? Based on what? Maybe journalist Mel Henderson is trying to create a bit of friction between Chelsea and West Ham fans – and if you look at the comments underneath his article, you’ll see that he’s succeeded in doing exactly that. It’s almost as if the story isn’t true at all, and that it’s just been fabricated to direct some online traffic onto The Sun’s website.

Maybe that’s just my post-Leveson cynicism.

Chelsea already have Fernando Torres, Demba Ba and Romelu Lukaku at their disposal, and while the Spaniard may very well leave Stamford Bridge, bringing Bony into the club wouldn’t give them sufficient variation within the forward position. Lukaku is physical and direct, as is Demba Ba, and as is Bony – there’s little need for him, as impressive as his scoring record in the Eredivisie is.

In a squad which has been built around the principle of playing a lone striker, carrying three similar forwards wouldn’t make a lot of sense – if Abramovich does fork-out to enhance that part of his side, then it’s going to be for someone who offers something slightly different. A pure goalscorer maybe?

There’s just not a lot of sense or logic here.