Moyes To Swap The General For The Warrior

Fabian Balbuena, AKA The General, looks all set to move from West Ham on a free transfer, with plenty of clubs showing interest in the formidable centre back. Unfortunately for Balbuena he finds himself well down the Hammers pecking order, Angelo Ogbonna, 'Les' Dawson and Issa Diop are all competing for the two berths available, so Balbuena has become surplus to requirements.

None of this is to suggest that the player has a bad attitude or anything like that, far from it, it is just that due to Pellegrini's profligacies in conjunction with the Covid Pandemic, funds are extremely tight, and even though his £47,500 per week wages are not excessive it is still 'money for rope'.

The reason the club are willing to let Balbuena go apart from saving on his wages, is that they are already paying Winston Reid £85,000 per week, and are obligated to do so for another TWO seasons! Why pay two players to sit on the bench when you also have a ready made centre back emerging from the U-23 team as well?

In an ideal world the club would retain Balbuena and move Reid on, unfortunately there are few chances of any club wanting to take on the Kiwi's not inconsiderable wages, so keeping him at the club for next season makes perfect sense, after all, the club have to pay him no matter what, so why send him out on loan and still pay 80% of his wages? It makes absolutely no sense, and it should be remembered that Reid is a fine player who was coveted by numerous Barclays Premier League clubs before his dreadfully unfortunate injury that was in no way his fault.

It has taken Reid just over two years to recover from his injury, and while he will never be the marauding player that once he was, he is still the captain of the All Whites New Zealand football team, and is still capable of putting a shift in, but maybe not on a regular basis, but in a way that is exactly the point.

Who ever is playing '3rd or 4th fiddle' to the other centre backs will have to contend with long spells on the bench, generally supplemented by late cameo appearances as the game is approaching the closing moments. So not much of an incentive when it comes to acquiring a replacement for Balbuena, therefore getting Reid involved is a logical and pragmatic solution.

David Moyes can then get on with the 'little task' of getting in a new out and out striker, a dynamic midfielder, an additional left back and also try and firm up a deal for Jesse lingard, and also possibly a 'future' replacement for Lukasz Fabianski. - Ed