When the 'Pilgrim' first arrived at 'Gnome Towers' to finalise his move from China to E20, Manuel Pellegrini took along a dossier to show 'Mr David' Sullivan where and how the current squad needed to be revamped. Most interestingly was his apparent in-depth knowledge of the majority of the youngsters on the books, in particular Reece Oxford, Reece Buke, Josh Cullen and Declan Rice all of whom are homegrown players which is important due to the FIFA young player ruling which requires Barclays Premiership teams to have an increasing percentage of 'home sourced' players in their squads.
Since Pellegrini's arrival the media have gone into meltdown as to which 'relic' would be signed from Manchester City due to his previous connection with the club, however The 'Pilgrim' has moved quickly to request a loan move for Phil Foden, City's 17 year old bright young hope and future England star. Whether or not this audacious approach is successful is in the lap of the Gods, but Hammers fans should feel pleased and relieved that Pellegrini is targeting youth and speed over experience and lack of pace. That is not to say that there will not be one or two senior players arrive, and there will definitely be a few senior players depart!
It is in a way testimony to what a smooth operator the 64 year old Chilean Pellegrini is in how he quietly mentioned that the team needed four of five new players in his first press interviews, now doing the maths that is just about half of the entire team, and yet he said it in such a way that it was no big deal, try telling that to the players who will be thinking that their number is up. And speaking of players whose numbers will be coming up, there are a couple of glaring departure necessities, namely Robert Snodgrass among others. 'Snoddy' has essentially burnt his bridges with the club on many levels and it would seem highly improbable that he would fit in with the new manager's ideology, if the club can recoup any where near the £11.5 Million they paid Hull City then they should snap the buyers', most likely Aston Villa's, arms off!
A clean sweep?
There have been reports that Manuel Pellegrini will tell each player that they are starting with a 'clean slate', nice words, but as with many 'comments' attributed to the new manager there is a hidden meaning. Saying everyone is starting with a clean slate is a little misleading because for example the 'case' of Andy Carroll, the Big Geordie can agree whatever he is asked to do, but when he is inevitably injured he will still be the same Andy Carroll! That said, the reported £80,000 per week in wages he receives which was once eye wateringly massive is now par to the course for pretty average players, so Pellegrini may elect to keep Carroll as a plan B to use as a super sub, but then he already has Javier Hernandez to do that doesn't he? Neither player will want to be sitting on the bench, although that situation would probably be academic given Carroll's past injury record. If a club were foolish enough to offer around £12 Million for Carroll who is moving in to the final year of his five year contract, then West Ham would 'reluctantly' accept the offer, if only to release his wages off the bill and give them to Manuel Lanzini instead! Indeed retaining the 'little jewel' will be one of Pellegrini's first tasks, as will utilising Chicarito's abilitiies to the max, why have a forward in your club and pay him £130,000 per week just to warm the bench and play very occasionally? It makes absolutely no sense, use him or sell him, simples..either the club will end up with a newly motivated forward, or recive a healthy transfer fee and free up a sizeable chunk of wages that can be used for further recuitment.
Cautious optimism
The move to acquire the services of Manuel Pelligrini is a step forward, some may say he is past it, others that he is style, his team will eventually excite the Hammers faithful and in a way his appointment is a last throw of the dice for David Sullivan and the rest of the club's hierarchy. The Chilean's been a handed a 'war chest' of £85 Million, well that's one high profile player paid for! Well seriously there will need to be a lot of 'horse trading' between now and the beginning of the season, hopefully the club will get most of it's business done early, particularly as this is World Cup year and players' values usually tend to go up rather than down.
So to conclude
Probable players out: Snodgrass (loan to be made permanent by Villa) Winston Reid (injury prone), Sam Byram (injury prone), Patrice Evra, Andy Carroll (injury prone), Jordan Hugill, The Ginger Pele, Joe Hart and contentiously Mikael Antonio (injury prone) That's around £480,000 per week off the wages bill!
Obviously a few of the fringe and youth players will go as well, but it will be interesting to see who will be at the club by the time the 'early' transfer window closes.- Ed
