da betway： West Ham’s season just keeps getting worse. A mini-flurry of three wins on the spin over the festive period looked to be easing some of the pain of a horrendous start to the campaign. But just as things were looking up, a punch in the gut has been delivered in the shape of Dimitri Payet wanting out.
da cassino： As the old adage goes, no player is ever bigger than the club, but Payet certainly is the Hammers’ key man right now (as the stats show below), so news that he may well be on his way out before the close of the transfer window is a bitter pill to swallow for London Stadium faithful.
Alas, Irons fans have to look for the silver lining to this dark cloud, and that glimmer of hope comes in the fact that Payet will fetch a good fee for a player of his age (29) and the transfer window remains wide open with enough time to find a replacement.
However, if indeed there is a man coming in as Payet journeys away – potentially back to Marseille – he needs to be more than just one to fill a slot in the XI. Excitement is needed, and we think one of these FIVE could bring the feel-good factor back to east London…
Ross Barkley
What a statement signing Barkley would be. The England international hasn’t set the world alight since really breaking through during Everton’s fine 2013/14 season, but there is so much potential bubbling away beneath the surface just waiting to be extracted.
Ronald Koeman appears to be at his wit’s end with the inconsistent attacking midfielder, but Slaven Bilic might fancy his chances of coaxing the promise out of the 23-year-old, who himself could just need a change of scenery and a move away from the pressure of being the local boy in his local team.
Likened to Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne already, Barkley is the sort of enigmatic talisman the Hammers faithful may just take to their hearts, with his eye for the spectacular having wowed Goodison Park for a little while now.
Memphis Depay
Somewhat like-for-like in terms of being a replacement for Payet, Depay is a tempting prospect. Let’s gloss over the fact he’s been pretty useless since joining Manchester United and instead look at his potential, of which there’s undoubtedly lots of.
Indeed, before his summer 2015 move to Old Trafford, Memphis smashed 22 goals as PSV Eindhoven clinched the Eredivisie title, scoring from set-pieces, using his pace on the counter-attack and rattling in drives from all angles. Granted, he’s looking more Alfonso Alves than Luis Suarez in terms of imports from the Netherlands right now, but he simply cannot be a bad player.
Maybe the pressure of joining a massive club so soon in his career has been too great and there’s every chance that, at 22, it all went to his head a little bit. So stepping out of the intense limelight he’s in now will allow him the opportunity to focus on his football and play regularly in a division that will test his ability.
There seems to be interest from West Ham in the wake of Payet-gate, too…
Robert Snodgrass
Scotland international Snodgrass is too good for his current Hull side. We mean no disrespect to the Tigers, but the Humberside club’s return to the top tier has been pretty embarrassing – aside from their early-season flurry of wins – with their matchday squad often littered with what looks like Football Manager regens as ownership issues bubble away in the background.
West Ham are understood to have already placed a £5m bid – a slightly insulting amount given players’ swelling valuations – so there is interest. Although he’s not a ‘stand-up-and-take-notice’ player, the 29-year-old is a solid Premier League performer, with the quality of delivery to make up for some of the created chances the Irons will have to go without should Payet move on.
Michy Batshuayi
A summer target during West Ham’s Supermarket Sweep-esque window of chasing any striker with a pulse, Batshuayi evaded their grasp and ended up at Chelsea. However, he’s yet to be handed a Premier League start and is being widely linked with a loan move away from Stamford Bridge already as Antonio Conte continues to flutter his eyelashes at Swansea in an attempt to set up a reunion with Fernando Llorente.
The Belgian, like Payet, rose to prominence with Marseille, notching 17 goals in Ligue 1 last season, and boasts the mixture of pace and technique that, in theory, will make him a potent threat in English football. West Ham are crying out for a goalscoring attacking talisman to hang their (flat) cap on, too.
Bojan Krkic
Seemingly left behind at Stoke now, Bojan could be a gem waiting to be picked up. The Spaniard is everything you would expect from a product of Barcelona’s academy set-up, but his career hasn’t come together in the way many prophesied when he was likened to Lionel Messi in his formative years. That’s a lot of pressure to deal with, though, so we’ll take him at face value: a technically astute and clever final third player.
Again, he’s not what would be called a marquee signing now, but he could head to the London Stadium and hit the ground running, which is needed given the very real threat of relegation.