Forum | General Discussion

Ahead of this saturdays's Barclays Premier League fixture against Watford Fc at the London Stadium, West Ham manager Slaven Bilic has held his obligatory press conference expressing his appreciation of Watford, his need to have Dimitri Payet back and firing on all cylinders and his appraisal of Michail Antonio's confidence!
"Watford are a good team, they did really well last year and were very active in the transfer market last year. If you look at their squad they have 18 players who are very familiar and have a good team. They have pace and energy, I watched them even more during the break and saw their three games and one in the cup. Like us they had a tough schedule playing Chelsea and Arsenal. We are expecting a tough game."
When asked Slaven Bilic said he "expects" Dimitri Payet to start Saturday's game."He has not played for us since the Chelsea game, he has played for France and we will see today. I am expecting him to be fit and ready to start the game,
we have missed him, It is the same for every club. France missed him, when he came on he gave them something different with his quality and set-pieces."
The Hammers boss had some additional good news about Manuel Lanzini, “He is back and came on against Manchester City, he is fully fit and all the players who came back from their countries have not reported any injuries. A few of them should be involved in the game against Watford.”
Bilic concluded by saying "It will help Michail Antonio to be part of the England squad, he was confident before that, he doesn't need to change the way he plays." when asked whether Michail Antonio's inclusion in the England squad had been beneficial. Other questions regarding player fitness were referred to the head of the medical team Stjin Vandenbrouke."Aaron is doing well with his rehabilitation," Stijn Vandenbroucke told whufc.com. "He has started running and works two times a day with physiotherapist Dom Rogan. He will return to team training in October."Andre is also working hard, he is extremely motivated to play football as soon as possible. We have made great progress and he will get back stronger but the reality is that it will take time."With Andy and Diafra, both are making progress but it is too early to put a time frame on their return to first-team action. I will have a better view on their return dates next week." - Ed

The troubled enigma that is Diafra Sakho has an agent named Mark Mc Kay, son of the legendary (at least to the tax authorities) football agent Willie Mc Kay, Mc Kay Jnr also represents Dimitri Payet. West Ham fans will recall Jacques Olivier Auguste (Dimi's french agent) spitting his dummy out when Dimitri had the temerity to actually say something about how happy and content he was at West Ham United, without the permission of his agent! Heaven forbid trusting a player to do the 'right' thing heh?, well Mark Mc Kay has no such worries with 'the Sakman'. Sakho has disappeared off the radar since his refusal to join up for the pre-season friendlies in Europe and his ultimately unsuccessful transfer to West Bromwich Albion which failed due to an ongoing back problem, again with apparently as the suffix!
Rewind to when Diafra Sakho arrived from Metz, he was unbelievably keen to join the club and (here's the 'A' word again) apparently was in tears when first it seemed the transfer would not go ahead, because Big Sam 'didn't fancy' him. The deal eventually only got over the line due to the direct intervention of Hammers' co-owner and majority share holder David Sullivan, who was so convinced of Sakho's potential and what good value the deal might be that he turned what was going to be a loan deal in to a permanent transfer straight away instead. Sakho arrived at the Old Boleyn and instantly became a fans favourite , despite always looking moody, by equaling the premier league record for consecutive goals scored. Then followed the injury while away on International duty that many believe he never fully recovered from, an injury that has had a knock on effect resulting in the need for thigh surgery and a whole host of other fitness issues, these along with well documented private life problems and too much time on his own, have compounded his depressed state. During his state of depression the club, mistakenly in many people's opinion, went OTT on announcing their intentions of signing a 'marquee' striker as part of the brave new footballing world about to be launched from the London Stadium, probably not what you want to hear while your own footballing world is disintegrating. It should be remembered that on his last return from injury 'Sakman' was quoted as saying he still hoped to get between 15-20 goals, and he meant it!
So what's happened? Clearly, rightly or wrongly, the player feels second or third choice and unwanted, the opposite to when he first arrived. The move to West Brom might have been the best resolution for all parties, alas it was not to be, so where do the club, the player and more importantly his agent go from here? We have tried to contact Mark Mc Kay about the situation but it seems the club have 'stonewalled' the situation and lips are sealed around the board, however a colleague in France has indicated that french speaking Sakho has told his old team mates at Metz that he just wants to do the only thing that makes him happy, play football. Apparently he hinted that he was going to have a 'clear the air' lunch with current West Ham manager Slaven Billic during the International break and was still hopeful of resurrecting his career at the Olympic Stadium, at least until the transfer window opens again. Here is the update confusion conundrum, what relevance does the transfer window hold for a player who has failed his last medical? The answer is that Diafra Sakho will probably never fully recover from the injury inflicted on him by the Senegalese medical team, an act described at the time by now England manager Sam Allardyce as barbaric. The injury can flare up at any time, a bit like like Demba Ba's supposed exploding knee (never happened), it can be managed and that is all. So in essence Sakho and West Ham are stuck together like it or not, so much depends on the Sakho Billic meeting because Sakho is too good a player to be given the 'Amalfatino' treatment, his spat before the Arsenal match was induced thanks to the now banished Alex Song's stupidity during a very stressful time in Sakho's personal life. It may not be a match made in heaven, but Diafra Sakho remains a West Ham player and might as well be utilised.
It might be hard to feel sympathy for a present day Barclays Premier League footballer given the huge rewards that they receive, but at the end of the day they are human beings and even more fallible given the excesses available to them at such a young age. If he's given a second chance, we believe Sakho will take it, will Slaven Billic offer the olive branch? We can only hope! - Ed

West Ham United's record £20.5m signing from Swansea City, Andre Ayew, is hoping to return to action either by the end of November or early in December, and according to Ghanaian media sources has his mind firmly set on taking part in the African Cup of nations tournament to be held in Gabon between the 14th of January and the 5th of February 2017. Whilst it is obviously great news that the 26 year old attacking midfielder/striker is recovering from the injury he sustained 35 minutes in to his Hammers debut against Chelsea, the timing will leave very little opportunity for fans to see him, if at all, in the claret and blue before he jets off to the competition. the 'bean counters' at West Ham must be apoplectic with regard to the expenditure versus return balance sheet. First they had the Andy Carroll saga to deal with, now this! As if to rub salt in the wounds, Sofiane Feghouli, Cheikhou Kouyate and Diafra Sakho could all be going as well, with International managers likely to want players at least a week or two beforehand for training, West Ham will be 'bare boned' for up to SIX weeks!
Feghouli is likely to play for Algeria, and Ayew set to skipper his home nation of Ghana. Kouyate and Sakho will feature for Senegal. Other Barclays Premier League teams have players going to the African Cup of Nations, but Hammers are one of those clubs that are more deeply affected. It is hoped that 'issues' with the various medical teams don't follow a similar path to that which saw Diafra Sakho virtually crippled whilst on the Senegalese treatment table, in fact 'Sakman' has never been the same since!
How Hammers will cope with the loss of the players, particularly Cheik Kayoute, is hard to predict, but there is strength in depth in the squad and also a few fringe players in addition to some promising youngsters who would like nothing better than to be given a chance to shine in the first team, well there time will come! - Ed