Big hitters the Daily & Sunday Express online and the Guardian have both run juxtaposed stories regarding Hammers 'apparent interest' in signing Chelsea's Kurt Zouma, the Express group published an article yesterday stating 'Zouma has his heart set on transfer to West Ham, whereas today the Guardian and others use 'Chelsea transfer heartbreak as Zouma refuses West Ham move', as their headline.
Unfortunately the whole Zouma to West Ham 'story' was probably always just a 'story' and has an all too familiar ring to it! Fans of West Ham have long been used to the 'could have, would have, should have' nature of Hammers transfer dealings, past and present.
The end result is invariably that either the two clubs couldn't agree on the fee, or the player's wage demands were too high. It has happened so many times, you expect Bill Murray to elbow Jim 'brown nose' White out of the way in order to cover Hammers countdown to deadline hour on Murdoch Sports!
Just in case you haven't watched comedy movies that relate to West Ham's transfer business, Bill Murray was the star of the movie 'Groundhog Day' when every day starts the same as the previous day. Fans are in need of a transfer fix and will go almost anywhere to get it, but no matter how hard you look, Hammers transfer business, or lack of it is becoming increasingly ramped up.
The club can be forgiven for missing out on realistic targets, but not for 'encouraging' belief in the usual smoke and mirrors 'targets' of the past that would never end up at the 'stadium bowl' in a million years. If the club is as broke as many fans fear, then the chances of 'significant' investment is somewhere between little and none.
Although there would be an immediate backlash, perhaps the club's hierarchy could for once 'front up' and tell the truth, the hostility from the fans is going to arrive either way, so why not get it over and done with ahead of the season? Otherwise the media suggestion that Hammers only did well last season because there were NO fans to protest and be negative will be put to the test at exactly the time when the players will need fans to be on their side. - Ed
