So Why Do Hammers Need A New Centre Back?

The 'Angel of Ogbonna' is 34 years old, 'Les Dawson' is 32 and Fabian Balbuena has left the club, so there would appear to be a centre back crisis, with there being only two ageing incumbents. Obviously two centre backs are not enough, especially as neither one is a spring chicken.

Various names have been touted, both domestically and from all round and beyond, a media writers dream that takes up the column inches until West Ham eventually sign a proper striker, which has become a bit of a cause célèbre. Letting Balbuena leave was a risky course of action, given how the wafer thin squad is, however it is par to the course of what appears to be a Moyes' Pellegrini player cull, if so David Moyes must have a plan, mustn't he?

By the time he is finished, Moyes will only have the superb Pablo Fornals, Lukasz Fabianski and one other player left from the 'Pellegreedy' era, step forward the 'monster' that is Issa Diop. When looking at Diop it is easy to forget actually how young he is, his towering frame makes him look much older, as such he has been unfairly blamed for the odd error he has made.

Some of Diop's recent showings were poor, the player looked completely devoid of confidence and looked like he needed to go on one of Kiev and Psycho's 'little boot camps' for a while, just to reintroduce him to the 'dark arts' of 'defenderism'!

Diop is a class act, a player who can only improve who admittedly maybe needs a kick up the back side, but maybe needs a comforting arm, that's the manager and his coaching team's job. Diop has a lot in his locker, watching him he seems more like a central midfielder who can play as a centre back, instead of their opposite. The Frenchman reminds us at the Org of a young Rio, Diop is comfortable on the ball and possesses a hell of a shot, and of course is very decent in the air.

Even if Moyes does decide to stick with Diop, which is apparently what he wants to do, that still leaves Hammers seemingly woefully short. Well the answer is close to home, what is the point of having a youth system if you don't promote players to the first team from it? Also what is the point of buying players you don't play?

In Frederik Alves the club has a superb player, virtually tailor made to step up to the plate, he in conjunction with Diop could provide a solid young pairing that could play together for the next FIVE years at least! In these Covid financial fall out times, clubs have to think on their feet and creatively move forward, West Ham has always been known as the Academy of Football, isn't it about time the club returned to it's roots? Only this time keep it's best players instead of flogging them off the first time someone flashes a few quid. - Ed