Hammers have £10m bid for Young accepted
By RICHARD COPEMAN and STEVE CURRY - More by this author » Last updated at 22:27pm on 14th January 2007
West Ham have had a £10million bid accepted for Watford forward Ashley Young.
The Upton Park board were successful at the fourth attempt for the England Under 21 international, having previously had offers of £7m, £8m and then £9m rejected.
The development is a major boost for manager Alan Curbishley, who learned yesterday that he will be without injured defender Danny Gabbidon (groin) and Argentina striker Carlos Tevez (calf) for the next six weeks.
Curbishley will now be desperate for Young to agree personal terms and play a major part in his side’s battle against relegation.
He will be hoping to seal the deal over the next few days, with Aston Villa still in the hunt for a player who made his name in the Championship last season before continuing his impressive development in the top flight this term.
Villa, financed by the millions of new owner Randy Lerner, could table a counter bid.
Curbishley has a £50million treasure chest from his new Icelandic owner to try to stave off relegation from the Premiership, but can it buy him the kind of combative spirit that will be needed in the West Ham dressing room as the dark clouds gather?
After Fulham had scrapped and skirmished their way to a valuable point at Upton Park on Saturday, their boss Chris Coleman said : "To get out of relegation battles you can sometimes substitute a bit of talent for a few dogs of war.
"The dressing room spirit has to be right. The players have to be with each other, together. I can say ours are because we are further up the table than they are and, luckily for us this season, we have not been in the bottom three."
Anxiety is the one thing coaching does not dispel. Only results do that. Disquiet and angst are pervading every corner of the Boleyn Ground.
"They are getting in deeper and deeper," said Coleman.
"You can just sense the nervousness. The crowd are uneasy as well. It doesn’t matter if Curbs has £50m to spend. It takes new players time to settle and maybe some are not used to being in a relegation battle.
"West Ham have a demanding crowd. What they want to see is energy and enthusiasm and rightly so. It is not just about throwing money at it and I am sure Alan knows that.
"This will feel like a defeat to them. But when we went 1-0 up early on through Tomasz Radzinski they weren’t moving the ball as you expect West Ham to do, nice and sharp. That is nerves. It is hard when you are down there."
Curbishley had looked at the last three home matches against Portsmouth, Manchester City and Fulham as an opportunity to turn the corner. Instead they collected only one point, conceding too many goals from set pieces, with seven in all and two in this match.
The former Charlton boss has been in charge for seven games now. Apart from the splendid start of a one-goal victory over Manchester United, they have not been in a winning position in a league match.
"All kinds of things have gone on in the four weeks I have been in charge and it would have been nice today to have had a result at the start of what will be a clear week," said Curbishley.
This was very much a match of ifs and buts.
If Fulham’s Philippe Christanval had been sent off in the sixth minute for bringing down Tevez, who looked to have a goalscoring chance, the outcome might have been different.
If West Ham had not lost both James Collins and Tevez in the first 12 minutes, they would have had the resources to take off players injured late in the game — having been reduced to 10 men by the dismissal of Bobby Zamora, who earlier had netted a 24th-minute equaliser.
If Graham Poll had awarded West Ham a free-kick for what they claimed was a foul by Moritz Volz on Christian Dailly in the fourth of five minutes of stoppage time, Christanval would have been denied the final equaliser.
The breaks evened themselves out, however, since two-goal Yossi Benayoun looked well behind the line when he cleared from the excellent Brian McBride, who had already scored in the 59th minute.
But Curbishley insisted Poll, who flashed 10 yellow cards and one red, should have spotted Volz’s shove on Dailly.
"I don’t know where the referee got all that extra time from," said Curbishley.
"But there was a clear foul before the goal went in. Poll was right there and it was disappointing he didn’t give it.’
Curbishley is an honest man and knew the size of the mantle he was trying to pick up. Although he had expected more points at this stage, he says: "I am confident we will be all right and that this club can become really strong."
Coleman believes West Ham need to win eight of their last 15 matches — a tall order. But if they showed some of the fighting spirit he used to bring to Fulham’s defence, they would certainly have a chance.
Comments
For those who were at the game or just didn't see Soccer Saturday, he said that £7m for Benty would be a decent sale for the club..
His "value" is quite something else.