Recession hits West Ham?

[Guest Gary Loughran]

The Daily Mirror is reporting this morning that West Ham will sign former Birmingham striker Walter Pandiani, who is at Spanish side Osasuna, to replace Dean Ashton, who is on his way to Aston Villa.

It seems O'Neill has upped his bid from £12 million, I hope price was not the only stumbling block when his £12 million bid failed. Wasn't there an official statement from the club, recently, saying that Ashton was integral to the club and it's plans. Didn't he just sign a new deal on that basis, showing commitment to the club.

My guess is that Carlton Cole might go if Pandiani were to come in. In terms of goal scoring they are much of a muchness. In terms of improving the squad...I wouldn't have thought so, in this case.

To replace Ashton with Pandiani, if it were to happen, is a sign of desperation and madness of the highest order by the club. They should all go if that happens.

Are you aware of absolutely anything Nani has done for the club...excepting bringing in medical staff from Italy and Greece with whom he'd worked before???

A few recent KUMB articles have been so poor...I'm still figuring out the agenda...because representative of general and informed opinion they were not!!!! staff writer wrote a terrible piece recently. Comparing the last couple of years of Terry Brown's transfer windows with those of the current incumbents. Basically stating that Brown's net spend was greater, which given the facts is true. No mention of the fact that Brown dismantled and sold off every asset at the club the previous 2 summers. Carrick for £2.75 if I recall was one of the genius strokes (Kanoute, Defoe, Sinclair, Cole, Johnson, James, Di Canio and more around the same time frame). Nor do they recall the no money given to Roeder after the 7th placed finish, effectively leading to the sales due to relegation. Then as a result of promotion and the resultant monies they were able to spend in the 2 years cited in the article. I know statistics can prove anything, and I'm struggling to find the real reason behind their article. Maybe they are just not as good/informed as I once thought. The article was written in a vacuum which doesn' exist.