Different Piper, Same Old Tune

No pride, no passion, no belief, no creativity, no inventiveness. No midfield, no defence. Nothing has changed has it except the personnel. Okay I know its early doors and we shouldn’t get too carried away but the future looks far from rosy. With Bolton and Chelsea next up we could be staring four straight defeats in the face. Horrendous defending, a non-existent midfield and no chances created. Bent and the lazy JFH are feeding off scraps. I’ve forgotten exactly how long it is since Parker left but we have done very little to replace him. Faye looks okay and will probably benefit form a midfield partner other than Matt Holland who, although committed and hardworking, is no longer Premiership material. At least he once was, which is more than you can say for Bryan Hughes, or ‘The Shadow’, as we affectionately call him. He is a serious waste of space and how he is able to make a living out of professional football I’ll never know. He brings nothing to the side. He just doesn’t get involved. Send him back to Wrexham, they love him there. Obviously easily pleased.

As for centre-halves, we need a new one and quick. HH and Fortune look the best bet for Bolton but Fortune hardly inspires and is prone to lapses, errors of judgement and falling over. El-Kharkouri is a disaster waiting to happen but unfortunately the disasters seem to be becoming more frequent. If we can sign a decent centre-half to play alongside HH then things should improve. Young and Traore are more than capable full-backs. Elsewhere, Carson seems to be settling in okay and performed well against Utd especially when you consider what he had to contend with playing just in front of him. Ambrose has had a steady start to the season and if we can get Reid fit soon and Balanos a work permit then things should improve on the flanks. Rommedahl showed in a ten minute cameo exactly what he is capable of and deserves a start on Saturday. We need to get our wide players into the game to provide chances for the front two as they are not going to get any service from the central midfield area at the moment.

With transfer deadline just a week away the squad still needs, ideally, three additions. A centre-half, a central midfielder and another striker. To do this we will probably need to off-load some players and the leading contenders would appear to be Andersen, Euell, Bent (M) (lazy, good-for-nothing waster) and Lisbie followed by hopefully Hughes. With further investment by the Board and funds from these sales we may be able to get at least two of these positions sorted out. All three would be a bonus.

Whether even this will be enough will remain to be seen but at least we will have given ourselves a fighting chance and there is no doubt about it, a fight it will be.

So Many Questions, Too Few Answers

over the Green & Carson situation. So here are the answers. West Ham have been interested in Green for a number of weeks but were dithering over an official bid. However, at the beginning of last week negotiations began between themselves and Norwich. Norwich, realising they were soon to lose their first choice keeper contacted Charlton over the availability of Stefan Andersen, either on a permanent basis or on loan. Charlton, having already lined up Scott Carson for the problematic goalkeeping position, saw this as an opportunity to possibly sign a goalkeeper, Robert Green, who could be a long-term solution to the problem as opposed to Carson’s short-term solution. Having recently signed a new five-year deal at Liverpool it seems there is no chance of it becoming a permanent deal whereas Green could be the ideal solution. So talks began between Charlton and Norwich over both Green and Andersen. Andersen’s wage demands of around £12k per week were a problem as was Green’s fitness. Norwich, in their infinite wisdom and quite underhandedly, decided to release the news that negotiations had been entered into over Robert Green’s possible transfer. West Ham, desperate for a keeper to challenge Carroll, dramatically stepped in and agreed a fee of around £2m. Despite rumours of Green failing a Charlton medical, it is my understanding that things never got that far and that no medical was taken. The bottom line is that Charlton, with Carson already lined-up, suddenly saw Green as a long-term solution to a problem position and would have pursued it if the right deal could be struck. Ultimately it couldn’t be, and so Iain Dowie was more than happy to conclude the Scott Carson deal immediately. West Ham have got their man too, albeit at a higher fee than they originally envisaged paying due to Charlton’s untimely intervention. So all’s well that ends well. Or is it ? Andersen seems unlikely to move to Norwich on any basis unless he drops his wage demands but an exit to another club is surely on the cards. I hope that he goes on loan, get’s a full season under his belt, and returns in the summer so that next season he is the long-term solution to the goalkeeping position.