The Premier League Owl
When David Gold and David Sullivan bought West Ham, they dedicated quite a bit of press-time to hammering the previous regime for their financial mismanagement. In fairness, a lot of that was vindicated, ageing, injury-prone players on hefty wages has never been a winning combination.
But, then again, Gold and Sullivan might want to be careful of the windows in that glass house. David Beckham, Thierry Henry, Ruud van Nisteelroy – all high-profile players well past their best, all of whom would have commanded substantial and disproportionate wages, and all of whom the current ownership expressed a public interest in bringing to the club.
And now Rio Ferdinand…here are some quotes from Sam Allardyce:
If it’s at the end of the season and he hasn’t got a new contract and he is released by Manchester United, then we would be interested.
If he wants to live back in London eventually, which is where he comes from, which you know quite a few players want to do when they come to the end of their careers, that is an advantage for us.
It depends entirely on Rio or which other clubs might be interested in him.
Ok, so those quotes are from Allardyce rather than Gold or Sullivan, but for the manager to pass comment on the player there must have been a conversation between him and his boardroom.
West Ham need to stop this, because it’s all bluster – and any offer actually made would be fairly irresponsible. Think about how much Ferdinand would have to be paid, and then think about how much he’s actually capable of contributing at this stage of his career and how many games he would be able to take part in.
Isn’t this the very scenario which Gold and Sullivan raged against for so long?
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If this was a valid blog with valid comments then I would whole heartedly agree with Lloyd. However, as I believe this is some one trying to fill column inches then, all I can bring myself to say is it is just columnists and club blowing hot air. The club “say” they are looking to sign a whole host of “big” stars and this keeps it in the lime light by everyone talking and commenting about it. It is also a great way to flog season tickets! In much the same way items like this also keeps people who wite such blogs in the limelight and fills a contractual obligation on a slow day and again gets people talking about it. Nothing else is served except keeping bloggers in a job and football clubs in the spotlight.
Before making any comment on this you would need to know the type of deal which is being contemplated, if any.
If he were signed on a free and some sort of pay as you play contract then i don’t see that as a bad signing, certainly not akin to the signings of Ljungberg & Dyer, which cost the club dearly.
Personally i would rather we didn’t sign him purely to avoid the circus that seems to follow the guy around.