Tuesday, September 6

Another World Cup winner at West Ham

Just back from a break in Paris as we're now turning our thoughts back to the Premier League after Big Sam says England just need to be more clinical. Alvaro Arbeloa was a shock signing on deadline day. It's not often a player moves from Real Madrid to West Ham (though Julien Faubert once went the other way on loan). Arbeloa's 33 and was only a fringe player last season, but he's a World Cup winner and has won the Champions League twice with Real and has Premier League experience with Liverpool — experience of winning trophies that will prove invaluable in the dressing room. Sounds like it will take him a few weeks to get match fit, but with West Ham now have good options at right back. It seems the new stadium is already having an effect on player recruitment, as it's doubtful we'd have attracted Arbeloa or Zaza without the offer of 60,000 gates.

Enner Valencia has gone to Everton on loan and he's clearly a talented player, but always looked lightweight in the PL  The early promise of that thunderbolt against Hull and a few headed goals never materialised and you wonder if he might be more suited to playing in Italy or Spain. Diego Poyet has been released after being eclipsed by bigger signings, but the best news is that we have kept Dimitri Payet. If we can get Payet, Lanzini, Zaza and Arbeloa on the pitch together then things look a lot more optimistic.

1 comment:

matt said...

Arbeloa is a right back (although he can also play on the left). Don't think he'll be fit for Saturday, but after that I expect him to be first choice RB for the rest of the season, with Byram learning the role from him, hopefully to take over next season.