Hammers stalwart defender Angelo Ogbonna has been ruled out for most, if not all of this season following a scan on his injury sustained during the epic 3-2 victory over Liverpool on Sunday. It has been confirmed that 'The Angel' has a dreaded ACL injury which requires surgery straight away.
Back in the day an ACL injury was the end of most players careers, fortunately medicine has moved on and the recovery rate is far better, however at the age of 33 the overall prognosis is NOT encouraging, we obviously wish Angelo a speedy recovery from a swift and successful operation.
The signing of Kurt Zouma seems even more astute with the benefit of hindsight, Issa Diop's return to form has also come at the right time with him and Craig Dawson now vying for a position in the starting line up. One suspects that in addition to 'Les' and Diop, David Moyes will seek to deploy Jamal Baptiste at some stage during the season, most specifically for the remaining Europa League group stage games and the domestic cup competitions.
News emerged less than 24 hours ago that David Moyes had rekindled his interest in Fiorentina's Nikola Milenkovic, no doubt influenced by Oggy's injury news. West Ham had agreed a fee with Fiorentina of around £14 Million and terms that suited the player, only for the deal to fall through due to 'excessive' demands from the multitude of agents involved.
It is a no brainer that Hammers will go in for Milenkovic when the transfer window opens, but will face stiff competition from Tottingham and from the Stone Throwers for the 24 year old Serbian . In the mean time the club can be thankful that they retained Diop during the period that other teams like Palace were very interested in acquiring his services.
It's not an ideal situation, but injuries are inevitable during a long season, especially for teams chasing success on FOUR different fronts. LN
Comments
Four top class centre backs
Four top class centre backs seemed like a luxury only last week. What a difference a day makes. Remember Dawson is getting on in years. Yes Baptiest can do a job on the cups but this Serbian also looks like a good long term bet.
A West Ham team with options all over the park I can’t remember a time like this.
I'd like to think that
I'd like to think that Baptiste will feature at some point this season, and maybe he will, but we know that Moyes isn't the type to chuck him in the deep end and expect him to do the job. But if we can seal the Europa group top spot against Rapid W, Moyes might give him a go in the home game against Zagreb.
" stone throwers"???
" stone throwers"???
The Toon owners!
The Toon owners!
Right now we are a very Attractive option
In europe top four of prem playing some great football so i do not worry to much about who is in for a player or not everyone round europe and now the world after sticking it to the bindippers sunday know what we are about and sure you may get more money going to the barcodes but that projects a good 2/3 years at least before it will get going if ever...as for the spuds they are a disaster and again will take time to turn it round...nope we are settled we have great team spirit a crowd second to none and no baggage anymore i know who i'd pick if i was a player..COYI