Declaring winners and losers one day after transfer deadline fest is irresponsible at best. Luckily irresponsibility is my forte. West Ham have won the transfer window title while their neighbors to the west lose, and do so quite badly.
Andy Carroll’s impact was felt one minute in. Kevin Nolan opened the scoring on a play that originated from a Carroll header. The Liverpool castoff looks to be the perfect fit for Sam Allardyce’s side – who better to receive long balls played up the middle. Carroll victimized Brede Hangeland all day. Winston Reid and Matty Taylor added goals to make it 3-0 just 41 minutes in. Carlton Cole’s misfortune is the Hammers gain, at least one match in – Carroll and Ricardo Vaz Te were excellent in tandem.
Like this would have been unacceptable from Carroll at Liverpool. 4-3-3 easily allows for a target player. Just needed a chance.
— Janusz Michallik (@JanuszESPN) September 1, 2012
After an awkward fall that left him favoring his hamstring, Carroll made way for Cole in the 68th minute. Let’s hope the Geordie’s injury isn’t serious – full disclosure: my fantasy team depends on it.
Martin Jol’s pre-match interview said it all. Fulham’s boss lamented the drawn out Clint Dempsey saga and once again mentioned Liverpool by name – needless to say Brendan Rodgers will not be receiving a Christmas card from the folks at Craven Cottage. Most of yesterday’s player movement focused on which teams got better. For Fulham, the close of the window capped a somewhat disastrous stretch that saw the club’s two best players - Moussa Dembele and Dempsey – depart. Dimitar Berbatov was brought in to stem the blow but you get the feeling this was the equivalent of applying a band-aid to a flesh wound.
Jol’s feelings on the transfer window mirror my own: “What I don’t like about the window is you are playing your third game and maybe you have to play a player that has been here for a day and that is not ideal.” The Dutchman threw in a dig at his old club in the same interview – chastising Spurs for waiting until the last minute to conduct their business. A tinge of jealousy mixed with justified anger, a dangerous concoction for even the most formidable person.
Jol will have two weeks to ruminate over possible changes to his squad. With fixtures against Albion, Wigan and City coming up Fulham must get their defense in order. Via Michael Cox, the cottagers were awful defensively, especially in the air:
You had me right up to “justified anger”. Screw that. Full disclosure: I am a Spurs fan. But no matter who you cheer for, you can’t deny that Spurs get great value in the market. If their late pursuit of Dempsey inconveniences Fulham, so what? Fulham’s best interest isn’t Levy’s concern.
Hard to disagree, DM. Though I think Jol is fair in voicing his displeasure. Maybe that’s the Arsenal supporter in me talking.
The praise Andy Carroll gets for winning a few flick ons is incredible. He didn’t have a bad game, but you would think he had got a hat trick the way some were carrying on.
He can be a handful no doubt, but little of that comes from actual footballing ability.
dempsey and dememble great signings for spurs but it wont matter who u bring in if u still have avb at the helm