Silly season is about to kick off at the beginning of June when the transfer window opens, however that doesn't stop a raft of spurious rumours surfacing at every opportunity. This leads us to the Michail Antonio to Middlesborough 'distortion' currently doing the rounds, firstly 'Boro are in no way to blame for this 'story', all that has happened is that a 'spokesperson' for the club replied yes when asked if Antonio would be the sort of player they were looking at following their promotion to the Barclays Premier League. Saying you would like a player at your club would be like Slaven Billic saying he wouldn't mind Messi or Neymar rocking up at the Olympic Stadium, it won't happen, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't mind it does it?
Michail Antonio seemed to be an expensive close of window purchase from Nottingham Forest at just under £8 Million, but he has proved to be one of the buys of the season, some pundits and many West Ham fans were of the opinion he should have been with the England squad for the Euro's, but that's another story. Whatever the opinion, Antonio is worth a good deal more than the sort of money Middlesborough were 'rumoured' to be talking about, in the inflated market about to be further fuelled by the massive increase in TV revenue his value would be in the £15-20 Million region.
Hammers will be one of those clubs looking to pick up a good deal from the relegated clubs, one player in particular is Newcastle midfielder Cheick Tiote who Billic is quite keen on, if he did sign can you imagine the confusion for commentators when Cheik Kouyaté passes the ball to Cheick Tiote? - Ed
Comments
A lot of reports coming out
A lot of reports coming out today linking us again with Gorken Tore who certainly seems to be doing the business in Turkey and has reportedly been a long term target for Slaven , just wondering where this will leave Antonio with Tore a right winger as well, it would be a shame to see him stuck at RB ?
Antonio to become a 'left
Antonio to become a 'left winger'? Payet in the middle Tore on the right? Antonio is like a very upmarket Christain Dailly, very adaptable, i bet he can fold in two and become a camping bed!
Tore would be good business
We need depth and competition at every position. Two quality right wingers is a minimum if we are in four competitions. Antonio is going to have to develop a little more guile and a fair bit more skill with the final pass (which has often let him down). Don't get me wrong -- he is terrific -- but teams will game plan for him now, so he has to develop even more skills. I hope he does, because he's one of my favourite players. Unfortunately neither Sakho nor Valencia really developed this season, and Carroll, while he had his days, cannot be said to have improved. So the position we need the most is striker, as always.