Riquelme to West Ham?

[Stoof]

He's possibly the best player, bar Messi and Maradona that I've seen, but I think this is a terrible signing. West Ham need to completely rebuild. They should be looking to get rid of the likes of Parker and buy younger players, on lower wages, who will have a sell on value. There is no long term planning evident here. Riquelme may help them finish a couple of places higher up the league, but he'll just drain money out of the club. They should be looking at the likes of O'hara and not Riquelme. They should be looking for a top 15 finish for the next couple of years, in which time they must try to completely restructure the squad (as Arnesen did for us in just 1 year). I'm sure they'd be better off in a couple of years, if they sold Parker and didn't sign Riquelme. If they sold Parker now they'd probably get £8 million for him. In 2 years time he'll be worthless. Is it really worth keeping him for the sake of finshing 13th instead of say 16th, when he's on £80,000 per week and will lose value at a rate of about £4 million per year? They could probably buy O'hara and GDS of us for £14 million and in 2 years time it's highly likely they wont have lost any value and their wages will be far lower, less than half even, than Parker and Riquelme's.

There are lots of good players around that are easily good enough to keep West Ham in the Prem and hold their transfer value, whilst not costing a fortune in wages. Hutton, Behaldj and KPB are others that spring to mind. Targetting the likes of Henry, Joe Cole and Riquelme is short sighted if you ask me. They might not cost a transfer fee, but they'll end up costing Wham a fuck of a lot more than younger, less glamorous players, who will require them to pay a fee. If Gold and Sullivan really are so passionate about the club then why don't they make and interest free loan and fund the purchases of more suitable players, rather than trying to sign free transfers who, via wages, will drain the club.

I think it's pretty common knowledge that Gold and Sullivan are idiots. Old pervy idiots.

 

[Bobishism]

I didn't say anything about youngsters.

I'm talking about unity and a wage bill to fit your income. A few months ago West Hams chairman openly asked the players to take a pay cut as their wage bill was out of control, now they've openly shown interest in Henry, Beckham and Riquelme.

A wide ranging wage bill has often been a problem at clubs. When a star is on 80k a week and not performing and a good, hard working guy is on 15k a there is often a build-up of resentment. To the outside world Riquelme might look like a good signing but potentially there are many problems with this kind of a deal.

Joey55 did.

 

[joey55]

Joey55 did.

I said "younger players", not "youngsters", as in academny players. Also where is the evidence of West ham's excellent academy you've mentioned. Having a number of players in your squad that came though your academy doesn't mean they are good enough. Look at Middlesbrough, where a couple of years ago everyone was raving about their great academy. They are now in the Championship. And they actually had a couple of decent academy players which Wham don't even seem to have. Maybe Tomkins, Collison, Sears and Noble are better than I give them credit for, but their careers to date don't really suggest they are exaclty going to emulate the likes of Cole, Ferdinand, Lampards etc from the days when they did have a decent academy. Their academy hasn't even come close to winning the Premier Academy League or Youth Cups since 1999. This season, for example, they finished 5th in their league and overall 15 clubs did better than them.

 

[dontcallme]

Joey55 did.

Sorry, thought you were responding to me.

 

[Bobishism]

I said "younger players", not "youngsters", as in academny players. Also where is the evidence of West ham's excellent academy you've mentioned. Having a number of players in your squad that came though your academy doesn't mean they are good enough. Look at Middlesbrough, where a couple of years ago everyone was raving about their great academy. They are now in the Championship. And they actually had a couple of decent academy players which Wham don't even seem to have. Maybe Tomkins, Collison, Sears and Noble are better than I give them credit for, but their careers to date don't really suggest they are exaclty going to emulate the likes of Cole, Ferdinand, Lampards etc from the days when they did have a decent academy. Their academy hasn't even come close to winning the Premier Academy League or Youth Cups since 1999. This season, for example, they finished 5th in their league and overall 15 clubs did better than them.

Those players finished above Portsmouths O'Hara and Boateng. And your advocating replacing them with these players. That doesn't make sense. Middlesbrough still have a decent academy. Aren't the u21 squads fairly represented by their players? Anyway, was the decline of Middlesbrough due to the talent of their young players? Weren't they relegated only after focussing on signing young players with high sell on values?

 

[jamesc0le]

he'd walk away within 3 months. does nobody understand riquelme's mentality and what he tends to do on the pitch?

 

[joey55]

Those players finished above Portsmouths O'Hara and Boateng. And your advocating replacing them with these players. That doesn't make sense. Middlesbrough still have a decent academy. Aren't the u21 squads fairly represented by their players? Anyway, was the decline of Middlesbrough due to the talent of their young players? Weren't they relegated only after focussing on signing young players with high sell on values?

Everyone knows what happened at Pompey and it wasn't because KPB and O'hara weren't good enough. Obviously there were a number of reasons, but if one thing more than anything was to blame it was paying too high wages, which was exaclty the situation Wham found themselves in and were and still are in financial difficulties because of it. The idea of signing more players on high wages is madness if you ask me.

Boro went down because the players they signed weren't good enough. Young or old it's irrelevant if they are poor signings. Wham have already spent £2.5 million on Benni McCarthy, who is on £40,000 per week and has only managed 5 games for them. The last thing they need is to sign more players in their 30's on big salaries. The idea of signing a 32 year old tempremental South American and paying him over £50,000 per week, when you already knwo you've got to reduce your wage bill is crazy. According to the Deloitte and Touche report their wage bill is £10 million per year more than ours and they make a loss of close to £40 million per year. Pissing money up the wall by giving big names a final pay day doesn't seem like a good solution to their problems to me.

 

[spursman85]

Gold and Sullivan are idiots, they whinge about the clubs debts and the signings made by the previous regime (Ljungberg for example) yet they go after players like this??

 

[danielneeds]

Hahaha if he signs, he'll play about 5 games and be gone by January. His mentality is all wrong for England.

 

[Midostouch]

Will be changing my sig if this ever happened.

I wear a Boca shirt with his name on, to the gym. I will burn it if he joins the Spammers.

 

[Supersonic]

He would never cut it in England anyway, he is the slowest player Ive ever seen.

Talented and good in Spain, but shit in England. I hope they sign him