Does Hughton want a Brazilian?
Posted on June 9th, 2010 | 109 Comments |
Former West Ham striker, Ilan, was surprisingly released by The Hammers after playing quite a large role in their ultimately successful fight for Premier League survival last season, and Newcastle are apparently poised to swoop. The source for this little nugget of information is none other than Sky, so you can make your own minds up on just how much credibilty it deserves, although as the player is available for nothing then you would have to say that Sky have at least got the transfer value near enough spot on! Ilan netted four goals in eleven appearances last term, and a few of those appearances were from the bench, so that isn’t a bad record in all honesty.
I have to say that although he would be a freebie, he wouldn’t be a bad signing. Ilan has scored a goal every three games throughout his career, and that at least puts him level with the strikers we already have, in fact it probably makes him a bit more prolific than what we have right now.
Naturally, Ilan is a bit annoyed with his release from West Ham, and to be honest I was a tad surprised when I heard he had been let go as he always kind of impressed me whenever I happened to be watching West Ham on the TV.
“I did well in the Premier League and I was hoping to continue where I left off next season, but West Ham had other ideas, that’s football,” said Ilan. “I have a good record here and in France so I’m confident that a club in the UK or Europe will call my agent and I can get something sorted before training starts again.”
I think we could do far worse that go for Ilan. The striker has a bit of pace, a good work rate, and can also pull off a trick when he gets the chance to. Four goals doesn’t sound so impressive, but when you consider that they came in a struggling side in which he never really had the time to settle into, then it does look a bit better. In fact it would work out at around the fourteen-goal mark if he had the chance to play a whole season.
It would also improve an area of the team that desperately needs bulking up, in my opinion anyway, and Ilan has already demonstrated that he can be a useful addition in the Premier League.
For me, a move like this would be a no-brainer and we should try and get him signed up as soon as possible. Granted he is 29-years old, but if the club really don’t want to spend that much money in the transfer window, then they can ill afford to be so picky with particulars such as age.
What d’ya reckon?
I’d like to see him in in place of Best. He is a chaser and is the sort of guy that if he had played a full season with a team that was not in trouble he would have scored another 10 goals at least and he’d be this transfer windows Santa Cruz. As he is free we could sign him for two to three years, he has premiership experience and if he performs really well he could make us some money and give us the year we need to give our younger strikers more premiership time.