Source: FOOTYMAD
Cloggy's end of season transfer review - Part 2
Here is my take on the newer midfielders we've seen last season. Name: Radoslav Kovac Nationality: Czech Position: Defensive Midfielder Appearances: 34 (4 as a substitute) Review: The player we all love to hate, because of the position he plays in and the way he performs. Before him, Hayden Mullins was always the scapegoat for many a West Ham fan to aim a swipe at. He's received a lot of stick again this season, and some of it may be right, but I just don't think you should slag off a player who is as limited as he is. Yes it's true, he offered of us next to nothing whenever he played (not a great header, tackler or passer of the ball) but what other options were available to us with all the injuries we've had on the midfield? Let's just say Kovac was a 'necessary evil'. What baffles me though is the fact that we paid close to £2 million for the Czech geezer. Alright, his bird is fit (and she can certainly play with my peacock) but surely we are not 'Wags r Us'?! I have to be fair to the bloke though, there were games were he broke up the opponents play well. He also scored 2 goals this season! One of which was a vital and brave header against Wigan at home which all but secured our premier league status. The fact still remains that he has played more games this season than any of us wanted or expected him to play in. I hope that next season, if there is a future for Radoslav at West Ham (then again, who will buy him?), we will be using him next season like a medicine: 'only in small amounts, once every 2 weeks'. Rating: 5/10 Name: Alessandro Diamanti Nationality: Italian Position: attacking midfielder Appearances: 20 (9 as a substitute) Review: He was hailed as 'Di Canio's successor’ and his last name suggested we had captured a 'diamond geezer'. What we saw during the course of the season was a player who could be brilliant in one game, and then play like Mr. Potatoehead in the next one. His pro's consisted of having a brilliant free kick on him, ability to shoot from distance, passion, technique and vision - All abilities that our midfield had lacked for the last couple of years. At times Diamanti's con's outweighed the pro's though. What's been his biggest con so far has been his lack of workmanship. I know a creative player like him shouldn't be helping out his left back for instance. But the sad fact is that if your left back is none other than Johnny Specs, you're obligated to help the poor fella out cause he's bound to cause your side problems. Diamanti often disregarded his defensive responsibilities or faded completely out of the game. Everyone can see that he's a magnificent play-maker (even Geordies favorite son Alan Shearer) but he has a lazy, uninterested side to him that lets him down. Perhaps we would have seen his true potential this season, had we not been involved in a relegation battle. Our tactics in many games (especially away from home) was to set up the central midfield with Parker and a defensive minded midfielder alongside him. Therefore Diamanti was often placed on the bench or played out on the left or upfront alongside the main striker. These two positions however are not made for the Italian. He lacks pace to play as a left winger and he seems to drift inside too often. As a striker, he just doesn't seem to get into the right positions to score. I'm hoping for next season we'll build the side around Alessandro and Scotty Parker cause they're both two of our best players. Let's not forget, he did come 2nd in the hammers scoring charts. What he needs though is having midfielders around him who do the dirty work and who can 'release' him to go forward and pick out a pass. Rating: 6/10 Name: Luis Jiminez Nationality: Chilean Position: Attacking midfielder Appearances: 11 Review: I think I owe every west ham an apology. I eulogized about this fella being the next best thing since sliced bread, so to speak. What we got was an utter waste of time and money (even though he was on loan). It takes a player, averagely, about 9 months to settle in in the premier league. Somehow I doubt that the last 3,4 months would have been worthwhile to wait for in Jiminez's case. The Chilean midfielder has been one of the most disappointing players (and signings) for many a year. Didn't look interested whenever he played, couldn't deal with the pace and tempo of the game, almost every pass went astray and to top it of, he had a barnet even Jody Marsh wouldn't be want to be found dead with. Thank god he decided to go back to Italy and play for Parma, because if this was the man Duxbury and Zola described as being 'the player we should build the team around' than we might as well give up entirely and play our football next year in the cheese-and-onion-walkers-crisps-sunday-pre-match-pint-league. Rating: 3/10
