West Ham Fans Opinion On Collins 'Move'

turning circle of a tractor... ouch!

He's a solid experienced defender, not a footbal genius, but also not prone to blunders. I'm not happy to see him go, but I'd rather see Collins leave than Upson.

Paper thin squad and he reels of 6 centre backs ! What does that make us ?

Aston Villa

Surely Clark and Lowry are better players than this no-bod?

Actually perhaps Clark's performance on Sunday has told MON he doesnt need to spend £8million on Dunne, a 29 year old. £5 mill on Collins as a bench warmer with Davies, Cuellar, Clark as main choice CB's....

waste of bugs.....Saul forgot to say ''laughing all the way to the bank''

Why are we so negative about players before they sign? He could be a decent player for us but he's got the knives to his back already. MON can't win a the moment can he? You can't force players to sign, you can ask, offer a fair wage and see if they choose to. Fans cry "sign Hangelaand!" but he may not want to, so how do we force him? We sign the best we can and let them prove they are good enough. If they aren't, we get rid, see Knight for evidence of that.

If Collins is the best we can get then mid table obscurity is the best we can hope for. We've been waiting all summer for a signing that says we are serious top 4 contenders, especially our Laursen replacement. Beye is a good back up right back, Downing will hopefully do very well and the same with Delph but we've needed much more and it just hasn't happened. I've been hoping against hope MON has had an ace up his sleeve to surprise us with, Collins?!!

What is all this turning circle *********?Sounds like something jamie redknapp would come out with.

A West Ham fan who watches him every week (well not every week, because he only plays sometimes) came out with it

General Disarray, look what we the fans thought of Knight, Heskey, Harewood, Maloney, Sutton, Agathe before they signed... and they all turned out to be bad signings, ok sutton was decent sometimes, but where is this 30m signing GK was banging on about before, wheres Laursens and Barry's replacement ? we all knew we wouldn't get replacements and not good enough ones anyway, this is why Villa fans are so negative because every little last thread of hope we hang onto, to finally see a class player come in and its burnt, why the hell didn't we bring in either Owen or Bent..... can't believe we only have Agbonlahor, Carew, Harewood and Heskey... The last two i wouldn't play any day of the week and Carew probably won't even play more than half the games because he is prone to injury.

I feel Sorry for Agbonlahor who is going to burn out half way through the season again.

Don't get so upset about the bad signings. No club is immune. Managers build teams and no 30m signings will win the league in their own. As long as the bad signing are discarded quickly, no harm done. SAF, Rafa and the assorted lot at Chelsea have all signed some wrong 'uns but they get rid and move on. Wenger hardly signs anyone anyway so it's difficult to include him, although when players like Arshavin are desperate to join Arsenal, it must make his job a good deal easier. Calm down and let's see how the season pans out before we send for the sleeping pills and vodka.

Well said General!!!! Villa 4 Ever: |You fail to mention the times Villa fans slate a player and get it totally wrong, A Young and Milner was slated (at the begining). Petrov. These are all players that was slated by the fans. But it's not a new thing it has been happening for years, I remember big Hugo getting pistol whipped. As for the £30 Million pound signing. We can't afford it. You see we can only buy players from the pool of players from the teams in similar position to ourselves. We don't buy from the likes of ManU, Chelski, Asrenal etc unless there are in there twilight years or we find a gem from the lower leagues or Europe. It's a fact!! The quicker some fans relise this the better it will be. MON has got the best out of the players we have. Yes we have a small squad and MON is to be applauded for getting them to perform the way he has. So why is he continually hounded by some sections of th faithful. He can't do right for doing wrong. I suggest that those who boo MON should think on a little.

Collins is Laursen's replacement? *shudders*

Once again all negative drivvle!!!!!!!

Your view is then Mutley73 ? Top 4 ambition signings ?? Please don't slate other posters if you have no opinion of your own !

have to agree with mutley, I would not want a player that we sign to be the main signal that we aere challenging for a top four spot..I'd prefer the squad to show that...and from where I'm looking, we havent got a bad squad at all..when everyone comes back from injuries, i.e downing, bouma and Young, we will look alot better. Ashley will play a rooney role this season so giver us plenty options tatically.

as much as i would like to see us finish 4th i think we need to open our eyes and realise this is never going to happen! sorry if it sounds negative but i just realy carnt see it! we came close last season only to chuck it away because we never had the strengh in our small squad to see us over the line and this was with barry and laursen in the side! with no replacmens for these, average players coming in and a seriouse lack of fire power i think 5-7th is a more realistic target for us!

Well he must be quite a player because he's worth twice as much a Kracjar apparetly! Love mon, but but do we need a director of football or some such because in the transfer market we've been mugged off again. Downing and Delph were decent deals but the rest are a joke.

So, we've been waiting all summer to sign... James Collins. this should have been the summer for us to push on - bringing in players who will actually improve the team, continuing to press for a top four palce. instead we have spent the summer selling average squad players and replacing them with equally average squad payeres, meanqhile failing to replace our two most influential players. 7th the best we can hope for this season

schoolboyerror i agree and think the director of football could be required mons a world class motivator/manmanager and he has done a fantasitic job but he carnt make transfers all he buys is deadwood then sells it a season later because he realises they just carnt cut it! i carnt understand why shoreys been aloud to leave on loan when nobody seens to no when or if bouma will be back so now were down to 1 leftback wich is going to lead to players been played out of position agiain! i just think mon things were a night club at full capasity on a sat night with this 1 in 1 out rule he seen to abide by!

MON would never work with a director of football. As a football club, you either accept him, and only him, making all the football decisions or you find someone else

The drivel and negativity on here astounds me. When we last won the league, the final piece in the jigsaw was a journey man centre forward who turned in to a legend. We had a so called clumsy centre half (Ken McNaught)who was vilified by so called Villa fans in his early days playing alongside a centre forward (Alan Evans) who was converted to centre half. We had a right winger (Kenny Swain) at right back. We had a goalkeeper who wouldn't come for crosses and Des Bremner in midfield who could run for ever but who couldn't hit a barn door at 10 paces. However as a team they were unstoppable. M'ON is a believer in the team philosophy. He has made mistakes as all managers do, but providing the day ends with two centre halfs arriving we have two reasonable players (and in some cases some excellent) players for every position. It is not a small squad (providing we get the afore mentioned CH's) and I for one actually think the plan is coming together. Man City and Spuds being out of Europe makes the top of the table more interesting, but make no mistake, Villa will be competing this season at the top end of the table. Man City have all the money in the world but haven't really signed superstars but have purchased players who can perform week in week out in the Premiership. M'ON is trying the same on a fraction of the budget. If you all stopped moaning and actually started supporting the club everybody would be happy. It is the minority of so called fans that are ruining it for the rest of us who actually pay to support the club. Who was Martin Laursen before he arrived? He was a Milan reserve. Everybody raved about Milan Baros and demanded that the club signed him. How glad are we now that he was swapped for Carew. Mellberg was signed from a mid table Spanish outfit but we loved him. Petrov was signed from some Scottish outfit that plays the equivalent of championship football, but look at how highly rated he is now. Like every season a manager is judged on results and if M'ON signed Mickey Mouse, I wouldn't care if we improved on the pitch. Every season under M'ON we have improved. Last season we played 14 extra games than the previous season, but still got more points. The childish crying of 'I want a big name signing' or 'I wait all summer and we sign James Collins bah!!'. Well I tell all of you moaners if you are not happy, shut your negativity, we don't want to hear it and go and support someone else. But in truth it is those who moan the most who tend to go the least. Bit like 48 really. M'ON is no Messiah but is actually a good manager who like everybody else will be judged on results. At the moment he has put Villa back at the right end of the table and his support from some fans for doing this has been disgraceful. It will be the moaners who will return this club to the Ellis years of changing managers everytime there is a run of poor results.

Turning circle of a tractor? What crap! Collins is strong, good in the air, hard in the tackle. He's only 26, a regular for Wales and has never let us down. Always gives 100% and never goes missing during a match. A great buy for £5m and I have yet to hear of a Hammers fan wanting him to go. The only reason he is going is because we have strength in mid defence with Upson and Tomkins and we have to raise some money somewhere and our fringe players are so bad we can't give them away. I'm confident that within half a dozen games the Villa crowd will have taken him on board.

Villa 57 - Back up for the main centre backs, a more solid addition to the squad than Zat Night. I've posted plenty of comments on this site, but have held back lately due to all the negative comments on this site, it gets a bit boring!

Dunne's Laursens replacement, and he'll do the job at least 90% as well, i'm sure. At least as well as anybody else we were linked with. He's got bite, he attacks the ball, and that's what we need to compliment Davies. Collins is Knights replacement, and he's an improvement, without a doubt. I've a mate who's a hammers fan, and he knows a decent player when he sees one (which is unusual, being a hammers fan...), and collins is as good as you'll get that's willing to sit on a bench for a good chunk of the season, and can still come in and do a good job. I suspect we've paid a bit much for him, but then when you look at Turner going for £12m, and see what Ferdinand went to sunderland for, he's a steal. So, to summarise, Delph for Barry: a downgrade at the moment, but he may grow into it, and I suspect will give our midfield a little more pace than the pedestrian Barry. Dunne for Laursen: Again, probably a step down, but only slightly. Collins for Knight: An improvement, without a doubt. Marshall for Taylor: Probably won't see much action I guess, so the impact will be minimal, but age aside, he's a better keeper. Warnock: A very decent fullback, will probably have a similar impact to L. Young. Downing: Probably the most consistant winger in the prem league over the last 4 years, Ronaldo aside. So, Collins may not set the heart racing, but overall, this window goes down as a success in my book. Bring on the next 9 months, Strikers aside, we're pretty well equipped.

not mons fault , no money from randy, this is proved as we have had to sell b4 buying, in mon i trust, how about you?

6m for dunne, 15m for upson, no contest dunne every time! he will be a hero at villa i think.

Im with voiceoftheholte, well said!

Oh and comment from knees up mother brown (West Ham site) - by grant bargh 04:56PM 1st Sep 2009 ''Typical West Ham, they get rid of this season's outstanding performer, quite unbelievable.'' by Geoff 03:29PM 1st Sep 2009 ''I'm gutted, Ginge has been a great player for us and I believe along with Greenie kept us up - not the Argie turncoat, haha. How the Mancs got done over. Oh well, thanks Ginge and good luck.''

"No money from Randy" ?! What about the cash spent on us having the best training ground in the country? What about all the cash spent on proper sponsorship, and a proper kit? The refurbishment of the Holte Pub, money spent on good press...not to mention the forty odd million spent in THIS transfer window. We don't have a bottomless pit of cash, but I would rather have a proper businessman at the helm, setting up a solid infrastructure to make us as self sufficient as possible, than some Arab who's inherited ten billion pounds of Daddy's money and wants to play Football Manager with real teams and players. Rant Over ;)