West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola has celebrated a year in the job by thanking chief executive Scott Duxbury for helping keep his best players at Upton Park.
Zola may have lost Craig Bellamy to Manchester City but England trio Matthew Upson, Robert Green and Carlton Cole are still Hammers players, as is Scott Parker, despite the backdrop of financial uncertainty at the club.
After finishing ninth in the Barclays Premier League last season, Zola is pleased with his first year and wants to build on it, saying: "It's been very good and is an achievement, but I want to share it with the club. (Technical director) Gianluca Nani and Scott Duxbury have been brilliant."
He added: "They believed in the project and never gave up on the idea of keeping the best players and actually trying to improve the team.
"That has been really good and I appreciate that. I was lucky because I had fantastic people on my side.
"(First-team coach) Steve Clarke has been massive in this way, and also (first-team coach) Kevin Keen and (fitness coach) Antonio Pintus.
"They helped me a lot and we have built up a fantastic management team."
Meanwhile, Danny Gabbidon, who made his first Premier League start in 21 months during the defeat at Wigan last weekend, said: "It just felt great to be out there again. It was a tough game and I enjoyed every minute of it.
"It's been a while since I've played full-back in the Premier League, and obviously I was disappointed with the result, but it was nice to get a game under my belt."
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Selling Collins may well come back to haunt us as you don't sell your best young talent. there is still too much dead wood at the club. bellamy is a mercenary who will go anywhere the money is offered , so we don't really want players like him. have to give new boys a chance to bed in. one good result could make all the difference. Zola and the coaching staff have had their hands tied by the financial constraints at the club, so have done well to do what they have done. really need someone to come and invest some serious money into the club . but please don't let it be sullivan and brady from Birmingham. graham Birmingham.@#$% ON YOU IRONS.
I hated to see Collins go and felt very down about our prospects for 2009/10 but we could easily take 9 points out of the next 3 games, am I dreaming again?
Totally agree Collins was class and sad to see him go and Bellend was a money grabbing @#$%. We have the right management in place with Zola and Clarke to press on but I can not see why Duxberry is being praiased up as he has lost the HAMMERS millions over the Tevez saga, selling Savio for far less than what we bought him for and keeping Boa Morte at the club.
I think we have done really well over the last few seasons in general building any kind of team with the constant soap opera off the pitch that seems to follow the hammers around. Bellamy obviously wanted to leave so we had to get rid. I was gutted we got rid of Collins, but he was an expendable squad player in the eyes of Zola and Duxbury at a time where we needed money to sign other players. In answer to question 2 the reason we did not unload the players you suggested is simple mate, nobody wants Quashie or Boa Morte because they are @#$%. We would be lucky to get a tenner for the two
Collins is great, but West Ham is required cash to enhance its striking force, and Villa give Zola a bid for Collins, so Zola has to sell him for Diamanti. For the centre back, Hammer has several options, Tomkins, Gabbidon, Spector, and Davenport if he has recovered. It's a good deal at that situation, but not a great one.
We got a good deal off loading Bellamy, Shame about Collins, but think it was done to raise cash to buy Diamanti. If it wasn't for injurys we could have raised that cash by selling Boa, Calum, Nigel Quashie etc.
I was glad to see the back of Bellend / Why Collins !!
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