Preview - Swansea City
WHUFc.com
When and where?
Swansea City v West Ham United
Premier League
Monday 26 December 2016, 3pm GMT
Liberty Stadium
What's the story?
West Ham United will hope to make it a happy Christmas when they head to
Swansea City on Boxing Day for their penultimate Premier League fixture of
2016.
Seven points taken from a successful week in the run-up to the festive
season already ensured that the turkey tasted better for Hammers fans on
Christmas Day, and now the east Londoners have their eyes on climbing
further up the table.
That draw at Liverpool, followed by single-goal victories against Burnley
and Hull City took Slaven Bilic's team out of the division's bottom three
and up to 13th, with 19 points from 17 games.
Swansea, by contrast, spent Christmas Day in the relegation zone, with last
weekend's 3-0 loss at Middlesbrough their third in four games.
In total, Bob Bradley's team have 12 points to date and with 37 goals in the
conceded column they have the dubious honour of possessing the division's
leakiest defence.
Having been a top-flight team since 2011, the Swans will be fighting hard to
ensure the second half of their season does not become a battle to preserve
that status.
Team news
Diafra Sakho remains sidelined with a hamstring problem sustained late last
month.
Aaron Cresswell could make his 100th appearance for the Hammers, while Andy
Carroll played his first 90 minutes since the first game of the season in
the Hammers' victory over Hull.
Any links between the two?
Swansea City club captain Leon Britton is a graduate of the Academy of
Football who has spent the last 13 years at Swansea, playing in all four
divisions of the English professional game with the Swans.
Aside from a brief spell at Sheffield United in the 2010/11 season, he has
been in South Wales ever since leaving the Hammers, appearing in 514 games
for the club.
On the West Ham side, Andre Ayew became the Hammers' record signing when he
joined from Swansea in the summer for a £20.5m fee. The Ghana international
scored 12 goals in the 34 league games he played for the Welsh club in
2015/16.
How do I get to the game?
Click here for directions on how to get to Liberty Stadium.
Please note that there are no train services between London and Swansea on
Boxing Day. Click here for the latest news on the roads.
How can I watch the game?
The game is not being broadcast live in the UK. However, you can follow the
action as it happens on whufc.com's live match centre, with audio
commentary, social media updates, in-running stats, photos and more. Get
involved in the conversation on social using #SWAWHU
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Manager on Matchday
WHUFC.com
Good morning everyone,
After taking seven points from our last three games we all know the
importance of getting another positive result when we face Swansea today.
A lot has been said about the performance against Hull in the last game and
I'm hoping to see us more fluid with the ball and have more movement off the
ball.
We need to take more responsibility. It has nothing to do with fitness,
nothing to do with a game plan, but has a lot to do with the freedom in your
head or in your legs of course.
This will be a big day for Andre Ayew going back to his former club for the
first time since he joined us last summer.
To be fair he had a big injury and came back a few weeks ago. Now he needs
to train and he needs games to be the Ayew from last season or two seasons
ago. He's getting back.
He's becoming better than he what he showed in his first game and it's only
a matter of time.
I was asked in the pre-match press conference about the pressure that Bob
Bradley is currently facing at Swansea.
I have feelings for all the managers and there is no manager who hasn't been
under pressure in the Premier League this season.
Even Antonio Conte was under pressure for a couple of weeks. So is Bradley,
so am I. You were under pressure or you're going to be under pressure.
You enjoy it when you are not under pressure and learn from the time when
you are under pressure.
Bob is an experienced manager and they all have those kind of methods to
deal with the pressure.
I was also asked about Gylfi Sigurdsson and the threat he will pose to us on
Monday.
Football is not about one player, every club has best players. You cannot
win with just Michael Jordan. Gylfi is a great player, very consistent.
When they are closer to the goal he is real and very dangerous. They showed
a couple of games they are very dangerous at home.
They have good delivery from set pieces and the flanks from open play. They
work well from the back and we have to defend well against them. They have
quality, pace and we have to exploit their weaknesses they showed as a team
when we don't have the ball.
I hope all our fans have a safe trip to south Wales today and hope we can
come away with another big three points.
Enjoy the game.
Slaven
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Academy youngsters discover the true meaning of Christmas
WHUFC.com
As they open their presents and tuck into Christmas dinners today, the
schoolboys of West Ham United's Under-12 Academy squad will no doubt have
football on their minds – and a very special match that took place exactly
102 years ago.
Christmas Day 1914 is remembered for a truly remarkable event, when guns
fell silent on the fierce battlefields of Ypres in Belgium during the First
World War, as German and Allied soldiers agreed an unofficial ceasefire and
greeted each other in No Man's Land, to share gifts and food, before
enjoying an impromptu football match.
And the anniversary is of particular interest for our Under-12 players, who
flew to Belgium recently to take part in the Truce tournament – an
educational initiative run by the Premier League that commemorates the
Christmas truce and the lives lost in the War.
Launched in 2011, the tournament sees Academy teams from the Premier League
test themselves against some of the best young players from France, Belgium
and Germany, countries whose soldiers also fought on the fields of Ypres.
More importantly, it enables them to experience an educational and cultural
journey that enhances the history lessons they have been receiving on the
sacrifices made by those soldiers.
Having finished above the likes of Chelsea, Tottenham, Everton, Leicester
and West Brom in the qualifying tournament at Aldershot Garrison Sports
Centre, the young Hammers sealed their place in the final tournament and
travelled to Ypres over the weekend of 9-11 December.
Christmas Truce
Despite losing their opening match against Blackburn, West Ham went on to
beat Belgian side Club Brugge before a draw against Paris St Germain saw
them qualify for the semi-finals, where they unfortunately lost to
Anderlecht, who went on to beat Manchester City in the final. The tournament
ended on a positive note, though, as the Hammers gained revenge on Blackburn
to triumph in the third-place play-off.
Alongside the football, the players made an educational field trip to
Ploegsteert Wood, the site of the Christmas Truce of 1914. They also
explored a replica British trench and bunker system at the Passchendaele
1917 Memorial Museum and visited the Tyne Cot War Cemetery and the Menin
Gate memorial to the missing, where respects were paid with wreath laying
and a Last Post ceremony.
The squad were led by West Ham United's Academy Head of Coaching for
U9s-U14s, Dave Johnson, who spoke to whufc.com about his immense pride in
the players.
"It was a fantastic experience," said Johnson. "Fantastic for football
reasons, as it allowed the boys to test themselves against some of the best
young players in Europe, but even more so from an educational point of view.
"The trip had an extremely positive effect on the boys, who all took a real
interest in the history of the 1914 Christmas truce and the sacrifices that
the soldiers in World War One had to make.
"I have to say that their behaviour and attitude was absolutely impeccable
and they were a credit to West Ham United Football Club.
"One of the boys was even chosen to read a poem at the Menin Gate Memorial
in front of 1,500 people, following in the footsteps of people like Barack
Obama and David Beckham.
"Overall, it was a magnificent experience for them and something they will
never, ever forget."
Martyn Heather, the Premier League's Head of Education, said of the Truce
initiative: "We've always been very keen to develop holistically rounded
people and I think that developing their skills off the pitch, as well as on
it, is crucial.
"Tournaments like this are not just about the football, they're about taking
the players out of their comfort zone. They can see the horrors that men not
much older than themselves faced in the First World War just over 100 years
ago.
"What was quite pertinent was players visiting the graves of former players
from their respective club, it just made it so much more relatable.
"The reason we centre the tournament around the Christmas Truce is because
we want the players to understand that football is a universal language, and
despite the aggression and horrors of war, on December 25, 1914, that was
put aside, and we want to learn from that and instil those qualities in
these young players.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
West Ham And The Mysterious World Of The Past
KUMB.com
Filed: Saturday, 24th December 2016
By: HeadHammerShark
"I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past" -
Thomas Jefferson, 1816
I know what you're thinking - Thomas Jefferson probably wouldn't have been
quite so certain about this if he'd ever had to queue for 35 minutes to get
a £4 pie - and you're probably right.
Yet, why am I drawing a not entirely obvious line between a former US
president and West Ham? Because there is a video doing the rounds that seems
to be stirring up a lot of opinions currently, and I must confess that most
of them are baffling me. It is described as an open video to the Board but
doesn't actually ask them to do anything, hence much of my confusion.
Firstly, have a look at the clip in question. It is publicly available from
YouTube so I don't imagine the authors will be upset with me linking to it
here.
Now I should say that none of what I'm about to write is intended as
personal criticism of the creators, or indeed anybody else who feels
similarly to them. I recognise a lot of things from that video; I have sat
singing the Payet song on the sofa with my daughters too, I uttered an
inveterate "Oh for fucks sake" when Zaza took his famous shot at Old
Trafford and somehow managed to get the ball to end up behind him, I
simultaneously treasure and despise the memory of Cardiff 2006, and in my
mind the football I watched in my childhood has been been lent a veneer of
quality by the passing of time that was not there when the games actually
took place, so I get the nostalgia.
Furthermore, we all support the team in different ways and have different
things that symbolise our love for our Club. If the newly revamped badge is
complete anathema to you, then I'm not about to tell you to get over it.
Each very much to their own. There is no wrong or right, merely differing
shades of grey. Or green, if you look at the large quantities of Costco felt
running round the edge of the pitch.
But as I watched that video I found my brow increasingly furrowed as I
watched and listened. And as the plaudits came rolling in from the various
quarters of my particular echo chamber I found myself asking the same thing
repeatedly - "Why?"
!"The past is a decaying memory and I do not have to relive it and empower
it unless I choose to do so" - James Lee Burke, "The Tin Roof Blowdown"
I have watched the video several times now to ensure I understand it
properly, and I have failed miserably as I'm pretty sure I don't understand
it even remotely. It seems to be mythologising a past that never happened,
or celebrating the worst parts of it.
For a start, it contains the following quotes:
"It's about...playing good football the right way, but it definitely isn't
about winning"
Insert joke here - it'll be the first one ever associated with this show
Objectively I suppose this is true. Supporting West Ham hasn't very often
been about winning. Watching us solely in the hope of supporting a winning
team is like watching Mrs Brown's Boys and waiting for a joke to come along.
But this also seems to suggest that winning is a bad thing. Like we are
morally superior to other fans and that there is a purity to our support
because we don't go along in the expectation of victory.
What a load of bollocks.
The years of ineptitude don't make us better fans - they make us stupid. We
allowed the Cearns family and Terry Brown to feed us that line for years.
"The West Ham Way" - a concept recently resurrected to very dubious purpose
- was apparently all about entertainment above winning. And what a handy get
out that was for the various boards of the time. Finish third, eulogise the
team forever but sell the best players off immediately. Develop Rio
Ferdinand and Frank Lampard? Sure, but we have to sell them to improve the
ground, don't get upset though, and hey! Look at that goal Di Canio just
scored.
Rinse, wash, repeat for my entire childhood. But West Ham fans are wedded to
this. We are in love with a past that has constantly lacked competent
leadership, ambition and success because we have become completely consumed
with the idea that just being a fan is enough. Become a West Ham fan, it's a
higher way of life - you get screwed over by the Premier League who are
happy to take your money but do everything possible to prevent you from ever
seeing your side win, and do so with the tacit support of successive boards
who never had the ambition to look past that.
Sullivan, Gold and Brady seem to want to change this, and yet somehow that's
a bad thing? I have no issue quibbling with their methods but criticising a
board for wanting to win things is mental. And I hate to break it to you,
but West Ham fans are no better or worse than any other. We love our team,
and for us here, now, inside that bubble, it's a magical feeling but it's no
different than it is for Manchester United fans inside theirs. We might want
to believe that there is something intrinsically superior about our own
support but there is not.
I have previously likened supporting Manchester United or Chelsea to going
into a casino and cheering for the house, and I stand by that. The
advantages those teams enjoy are so huge that I simply do not believe that
there can be as much inherent satisfaction in them winning anything as there
was for, say, Leicester. But that doesn't make their supporters somehow
worse than us, and the sooner we get past that myth the sooner we can start
demanding a bit more from our Club.
"Failure is part of our identity"
Is that true? Well, if it is then our identity is shit and the sooner we
lose it the better. Why are we happy about failure? Until this season West
Ham ticket prices were amongst the highest in the country, which tells me
that in no way at all is acceptable for the Club to embrace failure.
I'm all for glory and playing with verve and brio but I also don't accept it
as a basic tenet of our existence that Manchester United or Arsenal fans
"deserve" success and we don't, just because their clubs are bigger. What
bizarre crap is that? Can anyone truly say there is anything different at
their very core between Manchester City and West Ham other than Emirati
billions?
There's no need for this strange self flagellation - we pay good money to
West Ham, to the Premier League, to Sky and everybody else in the game and
our money is just as good as our neighbours. If we're not going to try and
win, then what are we here for?
"The West Ham United Coffee Company"
Jesus Christ, who gives a shit? So the Club put a coffee shop in their store
- like pretty much any other business of a comparable size in the Western
world. Of all the things wrong with the new stadium and our new identity
this is about 4 millionth on my list.
This is evil and must be stopped.
I don't even know what people want - a Starbucks? A Costa? No coffee? Why
are these better options than the Club making a few quid out of
refreshments? Again I am forced to hark back to my childhood memories of the
Club selling memorabilia out of a Portakabin and never having enough money
to keep any players, and wondering what exactly it is about our past that
people are eulogising over?
"You're turning your fans into consumers"
I get it, I really do. For us, going to games is not the same thing as a
trip to John Lewis, or renting a car from Hertz. It is a social experience
with an emotional core that transcends pretty much any relationship that we
will ever have with something that can't talk back to us.
But this again is hinting at something else - that we weren't consumers
already. I hate to break it to you guys but that huge stand they're
currently pulling down at Upton Park was called the Dr Martens Stand. The
Club had already thrown their lot in with the great corporate takeover of
the post Euro 1996 years, and we were already little more than consumers
anyway.
I have also seen a lot of commentary suggesting that 'real' fans are unhappy
about the presence of so many day tripping tourists in the stadium. These
fans presumably representing the new consumers as opposed to the old
supporters.
The problem with this world view is that I just don't see much evidence of
it. Having been to pretty much every game this season, despite not being a
season ticket holder myself, I haven't seen these huge numbers of tourists.
Instead I've seen lots of West Ham fans who can't or don't want to go to
every game but still consider themselves loyal supporters.
There are plenty of reasons why fans might not be able to go to games -
maybe they can't afford it, maybe they have to work, maybe they're too sick,
maybe they're serving in the Armed Forces somewhere or maybe they're in
jail. We could only envy them during the second half of that Hull game.
The list is long and exhaustive and the reality is that I suspect the ground
is full of our core 30k support and then a rotating 20k cast of other fans
from that 50k waiting list who can't go all the time.
All of which is to say that I agree that we're being treated like consumers,
but I don't really see how that's a new thing.
"West Ham is about things you can't buy....identity, togetherness, love"
OK, well this is an entirely subjective area so if that's what it means to
the creators of this video then I'm not about to tell them they're wrong.
It means different things to all of us, and that's perfectly fine but the
bit I'm confused about is the notion that the owners of the Club don't
understand these things. It's always bemused me that there are those who
constantly state that Gold and Sullivan are in this for the money only.
Where is the evidence of this?
They haven't cashed in on our better players and refused to invest the
money, they haven't as yet encouraged any external bidders for the Club and
they have done little else but put their own money into the coffers so far.
It's curious that fans who pay a £1,000 a year to the Club feel that this
entitles them to all sorts of leeway in what they want back, but refuse to
extend the same logic to the owners and their £80m. To my mind, their
failure hasn't been a lack of investment in the team, it's been in not
investing properly.
Think about it - if they truly want to dispose of their holdings then it
would be in their interests to drive that price as high as possible. That
means higher league finishes, a better squad and, yes, a better stadium. I'm
not sure why anyone would think these were bad things to be aiming at.
"Put the football first, listen to the fans"
Yeah, I don't know what this means. Here are a load of slightly impenetrable
complaints about off field issues but please just concentrate on the
football? What? Or alternatively, start asking fans about footballing
issues? Er, no thanks.
Is Karren Brady supposed to stop trying to generate income for the Club
because David Sullivan and Slaven Bilic didn't sign a right back in the
summer, and couldn't recognise that Jonathan Calleri had feet comprised
solely of cement?
Brady is driving the Club forward because that's her job. It's not her fault
that Sullivan doesn't have the self awareness to realise he is not actually
very good at identifying players, and as a result is pissing off the
supporters that she is charged with keeping happy. I don't think Karren
Brady looked at Michail Antonio and thought that the best use of one of our
premium attacking players was to play him at right back.
So, let's ask ourselves a question - would this video have been made if we
were sitting fifth in the table? I can't really answer that, but I strongly
suspect not. The points raised are so nebulous that I don't actually know
what it is that the makers want from the board. In fairness they have
expanded more here in conversation with KUMB, but I'm still not really much
the wiser.
I'm sorry chaps, but this video doesn't speak for me. I appreciate the care
and attention, I respect the devotion and I understand the frustrations that
led to it's creation but it isn't asking anything tangible or meaningful of
the Board. All it's done is stir up a lot of anti-Board feeling around
nothing. I can't see how that is helpful.
And for those commenting all over the place online about this, I'm going to
keep returning to these points as well - most of the current criticism of
the Club could be solved by a five game winning streak, and 95% of the
criticism of Karren Brady is rendered invalid by the misogynist bullshit
that accompanies it. If you can't make your point with referring to her
gender then you have no point worth making.
"Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you
don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your
time, or any of your space" - Johnny Cash
He seems sensible - let's take his advice
Now before anyone labels me as a stooge for the board or an apologist for
the stadium fuck ups, let me say this; there is a metric tonne of stuff the
Board could do to help themselves and try to reduce some of the current
enmity that surrounds the place. In no particular order:
1. Appoint an experienced Director of Football to oversee all elements of
the footballing side of the Club.
Ralf Rangnick - the man behind RB Leipzig's meteoric rise in Germany - would
do nicely but here on planet Earth we might have to set our sights a little
lower.
We desperately need to move away from the agent led recruitment of Sullivan,
and put in place someone with an understanding of analytics and how to mix
old and new school scouting. Let's stop signing players due to them having
good YouTube highlight packages, basically. At the same time we could invest
properly into the youth system and establish an Academy that delivers first
team ready players to the manager, already accustomed to playing in the
style of the first team.
Giving up this role to someone who actually knows what they're doing would
also allow David Sullivan to return to the normal duties of a Premier League
chairman such as producing films about the Krays.
2. Swallow the bitter taste of hubris and accept that parts of the stadium
move have been a disaster.
Whilst chatting about this with fellow Hammers @LeBigHouse and @AMoCS we
agreed that there is an incredible problem with the tone that the Club take
over the Stadium move. They are increasingly resembling The Day Today's pool
supervisor and his lament that people choose only to focus on the deaths
that have occurred under his watch and nothing else.
The move has had lots of issues and if we were treated like grown ups and
the Club just admitted this I think they might find that this single gesture
of ordinary human behaviour might generate some actual bona fide goodwill.
And boy do they need it, especially with Spurs building a stadium that their
fans will actually want to go to, just up the road.
It's hard to know how much of the stadium fit out is the responsibility of
the Club and how much is the stadium owners, but either way it's a little
bit like a film set. It looks great but don't stare too long or you'll see
that it's really just a good looking approximation of the real thing.
So, yes if you want us to be customers then you can't just ignore the
concept of customer service. You can't really have one without the other.
Like Palace and terrible managers.
Just try it Karren - "Hey guys, I'm really sorry about this but yeah, the
concessions are a bit of a nightmare aren't they? It probably shouldn't take
30 minutes to get a pie. We'll sort that out. Give us some time".
You might be surprised what that gets you.
3. Take away young Jack's Twitter password.
It's embarrassing to the Club that he is a quasi official mouthpiece who is
confirming major signings in one Tweet and then supporting Donald Trump as
President in the next.
We've now reached a point where we have to wait for young Jack to finish
double chemistry in the afternoon before we get confirmation that our new
signing has passed his medical. Gosh, it's just like Real Madrid.
If that's not possible then how about reassigning him to do something
useful. He could tweet about the West Ham Ladies team, who could really do
with the publicity, or alternatively about the Club's various charitable
endeavours to try and highlight the community work being done.
There is something glorious about the fact that the Clubs public response to
this video has been for Jack to send them an email. After all, when we make
a complaint who among us isn't delighted to have our concerns addressed by a
teenager on work experience?
4. Get some proper dialogue with fans to address the day to day experience
of being a supporter.
Bear in mind that this is a borderline impossible task as no one fan can
accurately reflect the views of thousands. I'm pretty sure that the
Supporters Advisory Board was supposed to do this, but I have no idea what
they do so I suppose there is room for improvement in their communication if
nothing else.
There is a thread here on KUMB that asks fans to contribute to a new ten
point plan. There are some things there that I agree with and plenty that I
don't, but it's a start and there are some tangible things that the Board
can actually address. As an example, if it is truly this difficult for our
disabled fans to get to games that is a really easy win.
5. Lose the running track
Best of luck with that. It would solve an enormous number of the problems
though.
6. Sort out the Club's public image. It's horrendous.
You know what we need? A slick PR professional, who is a West Ham fan,
understands the sensibilities of the ordinary fan and has the time on his
hands to commit fully to the job.
Please note that the opinions expressed in this article are those of the
author and do not necessarily represent the views of, nor should be
attributed to, KUMB.com.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Andy Carroll set for West Ham stay as Slaven Bilic insists striker is not
for sale
The fit-again frontman is set to lead the line for the club over the next
three games in six days with Diafra Sakho injured
COMMENTS
BYDARREN LEWIS
22:30, 25 DEC 2016UPDATED16:39, 25 DEC 2016
The Mirror
West Ham intend to resist any bids for Andy Carroll when the transfer window
reopens because of their striker crisis. The fit-again frontman is set to
lead the line for the club over the next three games in six days with Diafra
Sakho injured. Flop Italy striker Simone Zaza is set to have his loan
terminated when the window reopens with Valencia willing to snap him up. It
means the Hammers are pinning their hopes on Carroll to help them through
the next few weeks until they can bring in the reinforcements they have
urgently targeted. Carroll's future has been uncertain because of his
disappointing injury record. But he will stay, with boss Slaven Bilic
insistent, ahead of their trip to Swansea today, that he will no longer
treat the former Newcastle talisman with kid gloves. Bilic said: "Maybe
before it was always holding him back and that could be one of the reasons
why he was getting injured. "Unless you are talking about extreme examples
you are more likely to get injured if you are not training. "If you are
training with a good rhythm every day - and I can give you hundred of
examples like that - (you can stay fit). "Of course you have to be cautious
with Andy because of his history, but if he is feeling good let's build on
that. Why are we thinking negative?"
Former Swansea winger Andre Ayew returns to the Liberty for the first time
since his £20million move to West Ham last August. But Bilic has called for
patience for the 27-year-old who has also been unlucky with injuries since
his arrival. Bilic said: "He's had a big injury, he came back a few weeks
ago and now he need to train. Then he needs games to be the Ayew from last
season or two seasons ago. "He's getting back. He's becoming better than he
came in his first game and it's only a matter of time."
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Swansea vs West Ham team news: Squads revealed, injuries and more ahead of
Premier League clash
West Ham will be without Diafra Sakho for the Boxing Day match at Swansea
after boss Slaven Bilic confirmed that the striker could be out for six to
eight weeks due to a back injury.
The Mirror
BYPRESS ASSOCIATION
18:30, 25 DEC 2016UPDATED18:32, 25 DEC 2016
Swansea have broken-toe victims Federico Fernandez and Ki Sung-yueng
available for the Boxing Day home clash with West Ham. Fernandez is a real
contender to return in central defence on the back of Swansea conceding six
goals in defeats at West Brom and Middlesbrough. Ki might have to settle for
a place on the bench, but Kyle Naughton and Jack Cork are possible options
with under-pressure manager Bob Bradley considering changes.
West Ham will be without Diafra Sakho for the Boxing Day match at Swansea
after boss Slaven Bilic confirmed that the striker could be out for six to
eight weeks due to a back injury. The Senegal international has only made
two appearances during his injury-plagued season but was substituted during
the draw against Manchester United last month. Midfielder Gokhan Tore is
still out with a knee problem, Pedro Obiang is suspended and Reece Oxford
(ankle) and Simone Zaza (knee) remain sidelined, while defender James
Collins is a doubt as he continues his recovery from a muscular injury.
Swansea squad: Fabianski, Naughton, Mawson, Fernandez, Taylor, Britton,
Cork, Barrow, Routledge, Sigurdsson, Llorente, Nordfeldt, Rangel, Van der
Hoorn, Amat, Fulton, Fer, Kingsley, Dyer, Montero, Borja, McBurnie.
West Ham squad: Randolph, Adrian, Collins, Ogbonna, Reid, Kouyate, Masuaku,
Antonio, Cresswell, Noble, Fernandes, Nordtveit, Payet, Lanzini, Feghouli,
Ayew, Carroll, Fletcher.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
David Moyes: I will not sell Jermain Defoe to West Ham for any price
The Telegraph
Jason Burt, chief football correspondent
25 DECEMBER 2016 • 10:30PM
David Moyes has dismissed any suggestion that he might be prepared to sell
Jermain Defoe in the January transfer window, describing the veteran striker
as "priceless". The Sunderland manager, ahead of the Boxing Day clash at his
former club Manchester United - his first return to Old Trafford since he
was sacked in April 2014 - is fully aware of West Ham United's interest in
Defoe. West Ham are prepared to bid £6 million to bring their former
striker, who left them almost 13 years ago in a £7 million move to Tottenham
Hotspur, back to the club and hope that Sunderland might be tempted to sell
their highest-earner. However, Moyes has said that such is his strength of
feeling that Sunderland chief executive Martin Bain would not even bother
informing him of a bid for Defoe who has been in outstanding form – again –
this season with eight goals, despite playing for a team in the bottom
three. "No, it wouldn't be considered," Moyes said, of any bid for Defoe. "I
don't think there's any price because we know that Jermain's goals are
priceless to us." Moyes added: "I wouldn't even think about it. He needs
managing because he's a senior professional and needs treating right, which
we do. He wants to train every day, he trains like he's much younger and
he's in good condition.
"I'm not saying we're getting the best out of him because he's had a great
career and he's scored a lot of goals, but nobody can turn around and say
they can see a demise in him. You can only see someone who will keep going."
Defoe has been a resounding success since he returned to the Premier League,
in January 2015, after an unhappy spell in the MLS with Toronto FC. He earns
around £70,000 a week but his goals kept Sunderland in the Premier League
last season and he represents their best chance of avoiding the drop this
time also.
Whatever interest there is in him it would also be a very hard sell for
Sunderland to their supporters if they allowed Defoe to leave given the club
has already indicated there will only be minimal funds available for Moyes
to strengthen in the January window. Harry Kane (with 21 goals) is the only
English striker to score more Premier League goals than Defoe (19) in 2016
and Moyes said it also had to be factored in that his forward has been
playing for a team in the wrong half of the league during that time. "His
stats for 2016 show he's been brilliant and he's been scoring goals for
Sunderland," he said. "What would he get if he was at a Tottenham."
An added complication for Sunderland is the fact that Defoe is only one of
three players who has scored for them in the league this season – alongside
fellow striker Victor Anichebe (whose contribution Moyes also hailed) and
Patrick Van Aanholt, who each have three goals. "It's sad, that's not good,
but at least we've got Victor who has scored a couple alongside Jermain,"
Moyes said. "If we hadn't got that we'd be really struggling." West Ham –
who have been offered Argentinean forward Lucas Pratto from Atletico Mineiro
– are desperate to improve their attacking options and may return with an
offer for AC Milan's Carlos Bacca, who they tried to sign last summer, and
will jump on any chance to re-sign Defoe if they are given encouragement. As
revealed by The Daily Telegraph, West Ham have also circulated the top six
Premier League clubs with letters – except for Spurs, the two clubs will not
do business with each other – to see whether there are any forwards they may
be willing to loan out.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
http://vyperz.blogspot.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment