West Ham United Blog | Analysis & News
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According to SkySports West Ham have made a move to sign Sochaux striker Modibo Maiga.
Rumours earlier this week suggested West Ham were chasing the highly rated Mali international whose move to Newcastle fell apart last season.
West Ham now look to have stole a march on their rivals for the strikers signature with Stoke and Reading rumoured to be interested.
£4 Million is the price being touted with the striker expected in England next week to finalise a deal if the rumours are true.
Nicky Maynard says he made the right move choosing West Ham and his decision has been justified with The Hammers winning promotion.
The striker took some stick following his move to West Ham with some disgruntled supporters suggesting it was purely for money reasons, as some Premier League clubs were also interested in him at the time.
Maynard didn’t make the kind of impact expected, partly because of the success of Ricardo Vaz Te who was a revelation, but still managed to score 3 goals including a cracker past Cardiff in the play-off semi-finals.
Speaking with London 24 Maynard said:
“It is every English footballer’s dream to play in the Premier League and that is the main reason I left Bristol City.”
“I wanted to play in the Premier League as quickly as possible. West Ham came in for me, who were in the Championship at the time, but I knew that they would go into the Premier League.
“I am here now and it is down to me to produce and stay in the top flight with West Ham.”
Lets hope he gets a chance and finds those prolific scoring boots for West Ham this season.
Spanish veteran midfielder Guti who has been on trial at West Ham has announced his retirement instead of pitting his wits in The Premiership for The Hammers.
35 year old Guti had been training with West Ham since his release from Turkish side Besiktas and was available as a free agent.
Guti made over 500 appearances for Real Madrid and was part of their Galicticos squad of players which included Zidane, Ronaldo (The Fat Brazilian one), Beckham, Raul etc and spent 15 years of his career with them.
It looked like he was set to link up with West Ham but it now looks to have gone sour with the player telling Spanish newspaper AS that he is set to retire and take up a coaching role instead.
SkySports and various other newspapers are reporting that West Ham are looking to take Andy Carroll on a season long loan with the view to a permanent transfer.
Carroll who is 23, signed for Liverpool from Newcastle for £35 Million in 2011, but has struggled scoring only 6 league goals in 42 games. His form did pick up towards the end of last season and this earned him a call up to Roy Hodgson’s Euro 2012 squad.
Yesterday new reds manager Brendan Rogers appeared to be open to letting Andy Carroll go out on loan for the season, with AC Milan thought to have been a possible destination.
However it now appears West Ham have thrown their hat into the ring to take the forward for the new season, with some sources saying we will look at making his loan move permanent if it works out with fees ranging between £10-£15Million for the burly striker.
This deal could have legs due to our captain Kevin Nolan having kept a close eye on Carroll when he was having some personal problems when back at Newcastle.
The only thing I am not too sure on at present are the large fees being mooted for a permanent transfer if the loan is successful, these seem very high for West Ham considering the amount of debt the club currently has, and seeing as our transfer budget for this window was £20 Million according to the owners, then a £15 Million deal next season would be a huge chunk if not all our budget on one player!
The Mail reports West Ham are close to a £4.5m deal for Sochaux striker Modibo Maiga.
If we are to believe the reports then Maiga also has offers from Stoke and Reading sitting on the table.
I confess I don’t know too much about the player but managed to find a YouTube video of him scoring some goals, he seems to come alive in the box and can certainly head a ball as well!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vkhyLUET1c
He looks like he could be a handy player for us so lets hope there is some truth to the report.
