WEST Ham United? More like West Ham Dismembered. The sales of Joe Cole to Chelsea and Frédéric Kanouté to Tottenham Hotspur this week have left Glenn Roeder, the manager, attempting to lead a threadbare squad back to the Barclaycard Premiership.
Their departures push into double figures the number of players who have left Upton Park since the club was relegated in May. Paolo Di Canio was not offered a new contract, and with him have gone John Moncur, Gary Breen, Nigel Winterburn, Raimond van der Gouw and others. Trevor Sinclair has joined Manchester City, Glen Johnson preceded Cole to Stamford Bridge. Who next? David James? Michael Carrick? Jermain Defoe?
Everyone expected sales as the club confronted the harsh financial reality of life outside the Premiership, but the latest outgoings came after assurances were given to the squad that no more players would leave. Even so, Sébastien Schemmel, the defender, correctly forecast the departures of Cole and Kanouté last week during a televised outburst against the club as a whole and Roeder in particular for which, at some other clubs, he might have been shown the door. However, he has been given a squad number for the new season, and the club can ill-afford to do without his services.
The logic of selling Cole, whose contract expires at the end of next season and who could leave for nothing under the Bosman ruling, is inescapable, but Harry Redknapp, the Portsmouth manager and Roeder’s predecessor, has questioned the decision. “To me Joey was priceless, and what they are doing at that club is a disgrace,” he said. “Where are they going? I don’t know if they will get back in the Premiership or not this season. But if they do get back there I really don’t know how they are going to survive.”
Reports that the club is considering scrapping the academy that produced Cole, Carrick and Rio Ferdinand, if they do not achieve promotion, will also ring alarm bells.
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Carrick has said that he is “fully committed” to the club, and Trevor Brooking, a director at the club who acted as manager in the absence through illness of Roeder at the end of last season, yesterday defended the sale of Cole. “None of us wanted him to go, but it’s ludicrous if you keep him from a business point of view,” Brooking told Sky Sports News, playing down reports that Manchester United are to make the club an offer they cannot refuse for Defoe. “We’ve got to convince (Defoe) and the players left here that we are going to bring in some other players. Ten million won’t get Jermain. I’m not even going to suggest a figure, because as far as we are concerned we want to keep Jermain.”
It is not all doom and gloom. David Connolly, acquired from Wimbledon, had a superb scoring record in the first division last season, and the club intends to bring in another goalscorer. Matthew Etherington, the makeweight in the Kanouté deal, was a regular in the Tottenham team that rode high in the Premiership early last season, and can provide width.
Steve Lomas, Rob Lee and Don Hutchison have plenty of knowhow in midfield, but Lomas is injured and will miss the match away to Preston North End on Saturday, a game in which Anton Ferdinand, 18, Rio’s younger brother, could make his debut. How long before he joins Chelsea?
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Can West Ham United survive?
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