It can't be......can it?

[Royston: Republic d'Essex]

On day one, Benayoun said something along the lines of: "I'm thrilled to be playing at a club like West Ham in the Premier League - I want to prove myself in England and one day would love to play for one of the big clubs like Liverpool." If I could be arsed I'd track down the exact quote.

At what point was anyone surprised?

Liverpool are a bigger club than us and if one of our players/targets is wanted there, they'd have to be a cynical Australian to want to play for us. Same for Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and to a much lesser degree Tottenham. If Everton and Villa got their act together we'd have to be having one of our periodic purple patches to fend them off - and you couold probably argue the same for Newcastle.

There is a real, de facto food-chain in football and if we want to work our way up it we can't be churlish about taking players of Benayoun's ability. Anyone who says we didn't miss him last season didn't go last season. Be honest. It was **** wasn't it? Taking the Liverpool and Man Utd results out, what was worth watching? I'll tell you what what was worth watching, token moments like Sears' debut and a couple of Deano's goals. If you like, you can kid yourself about the other breakthroughs from the youth academy.

We have to get past this attitude at West Ham that anyone who leaves is a Judas. Yeah, the ones who really hit the ****er button deserve all they get (and really we're talking about Lampard Jr and maybe Defoe, aren't we? Even Paul Ince has apologised on numerous occasions and still sometimes professes an affection for the club). Slaven Bilic gets talked about like he's the Messiah everytime Curbs loses a game and no-one mentions the circumstances in which he ****ed off to Everton. ****ing Everton, for ****'s sake! One day, Ashton will leave. One day, Green will leave. If Sears turns out to be the new Michael Owen, he'll leave. We'll survive. There are rumours about that we tried to buy Joe Cole back recently (and he would make an instant impact). What if we tried again and he, or someone else, turned us down because we were, as a crowd a bunch of fickle ****ers? It makes me sick that people give him **** because he didn't much fancy getting kicked to **** in the **** league - especially when he was the one player that had given everything in the relegation season. Did anyone really start hating Tevez because he went to a bigger, better club? Then what's the point in singling Benayoun out?

Yossi Benayoun would be a massive addition to our first XI. I hope Dyer and Ljungberg stay fit and find form but I'm not holding my breath. Anyone who harrumphs off into a sulk because he had a genuine chance of bettering himself is being very, very short sighted. Rant over.

[Heysel76]

We're crying out for a player like him. Probably would have him back if he wanted to move.

This is pure fabrication, though. He's happy at Liverpool.

There's no smoke without....erm......something to make smoke (but it might not necessarily be fire).

[jacko]

Royston is right. Bring Yossi home.

[Eastbourne Hammer]

I'd be pleased to see him in A West Ham shirt again.

For all the evil, let's not forget whose goal kept Spuds out of a Chumps League spot........

[ekavall]

"We've got Dyer, Faubert and Parker back from injury now, plus the new guy, Behrami, all are reportedly capable of turning a game around with a sudden burst of creativity"

.

The only one of the players mentioned capable of that kind of creativity we're talking about is Dyer... And honestly, maybe we should hold our breaths for a while before we count on him playing that many games?
Yossi could play all along the midfield and would add what we dont have today. Even as a offensive creative no 10 behind Ashton and Bellars would suit him well.

And when everybody is wondering were the hell Ljungberg is, Yossi might be a really good option on the left as well....

YOSSI=yes please

[Kent Bubble Blower]

The only one of the players mentioned capable of that kind of creativity we're talking about is Dyer

So not Behrami, then? Faubert, also, was being pushed as a player with pace and flair before he was injured, who's to say he's not still capable of it? He hasn't looked fantastic so far, by all accounts, but he's not exactly dogshit, either.

[Dannyboylister]

I think it's more the way benayoun left that got fans backs up, I wouldn't want him back. Although it would be nice to see a player start drifting in from the left instead ethers endless head down runs to the corners flags.

[chalky]

On day one, Benayoun said something along the lines of: "I'm thrilled to be playing at a club like West Ham in the Premier League - I want to prove myself in England and one day would love to play for one of the big clubs like Liverpool." If I could be arsed I'd track down the exact quote.

At what point was anyone surprised?

Liverpool are a bigger club than us and if one of our players/targets is wanted there, they'd have to be a cynical Australian to want to play for us. Same for Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and to a much lesser degree T*ttenham. If Everton and Villa got their act together we'd have to be having one of our periodic purple patches to fend them off - and you couold probably argue the same for Newcastle.

There is a real, de facto food-chain in football and if we want to work our way up it we can't be churlish about taking players of Benayoun's ability. Anyone who says we didn't miss him last season didn't go last season. Be honest. It was sh*t wasn't it? Taking the Liverpool and Man Utd results out, what was worth watching? I'll tell you what what was worth watching, token moments like Sears' debut and a couple of Deano's goals. If you like, you can kid yourself about the other breakthroughs from the youth academy.

We have to get past this attitude at West Ham that anyone who leaves is a Judas. Yeah, the ones who really hit the w***er button deserve all they get (and really we're talking about Lampard Jr and maybe Defoe, aren't we? Even Paul Ince has apologised on numerous occasions and still sometimes professes an affection for the club). Slaven Bilic gets talked about like he's the Messiah everytime Curbs loses a game and no-one mentions the circumstances in which he f***ed off to Everton. f***ing Everton, for f***'s sake! One day, Ashton will leave. One day, Green will leave. If Sears turns out to be the new Michael Owen, he'll leave. We'll survive. There are rumours about that we tried to buy Joe Cole back recently (and he would make an instant impact). What if we tried again and he, or someone else, turned us down because we were, as a crowd a bunch of fickle w***ers? It makes me sick that people give him sh*t because he didn't much fancy getting kicked to sh*t in the sh*t league - especially when he was the one player that had given everything in the relegation season. Did anyone really start hating Tevez because he went to a bigger, better club? Then what's the point in singling Benayoun out?

Yossi Benayoun would be a massive addition to our first XI. I hope Dyer and Ljungberg stay fit and find form but I'm not holding my breath. Anyone who harrumphs off into a sulk because he had a genuine chance of bettering himself is being very, very short sighted. Rant over.

You are so right Sir. All this harbouring grudges malarkey gets right on my threepennies. Anybody with an atom of common sense will always have a weather eye open for the next/big opportunity to further their career.

It's high time we recognised that we are a middling club, stuck in the shitole that is the East End. We've won nothing of note since 1980, even our 'gold standard', the West Ham way, has gone awol of late, so we're not exactly the major attraction that some of us seem to think. I wish that were not so, but it is. Having said that, why players would choose to move to clubs like Bolton, Blackburn, or the NE is a bit of a mystery. I'd turn down a better job rather than live around those dumps.

Yossi took a paycut to move to the Pool, it was a career move! No way could I slag him off for that.

[Arch Dandy]

Anyone who says we didn't miss him last season didn't go last season. Be honest. It was sh*t wasn't it?

The football wasn't brilliant last season but it wasn't brilliant the season before when he was here, unless I missed something. Even the season before that he has a few moments of decent quality but he was hardly getting the fans off their seats every game and carving opposition defences open at will, was he? Unless I've forgotten.

We did miss something last season but I'm really not sure that it was Benayoun.

[I am law]

I'd be pleased to see him in A West Ham shirt again.

For all the evil, let's not forget whose goal kept Spuds out of a Chumps League spot........

What a peach of a goal that was...

[clawhammer]

I'd be pleased to see him in A West Ham shirt again.

For all the evil, let's not forget whose goal kept Spuds out of a Chumps League spot........

What a peach of a goal that was...

One of my happiest moments in Football. I had a picture as my screensaver for a year. For that one goal I will always love him.

[Hambrosia Stu]

Anyone who says we didn't miss him last season didn't go last season. Be honest. It was sh*t wasn't it?

We did miss something last season but I'm really not sure that it was Benayoun.

I'd say we did miss something last season, bigtime, and it was the sort of creativity that Benayoun provided previously. I was dissappointed with his departure, but live in the real world, so not really suprised. As Royston said, there is a food-chain within football. Yossi was arguably the tastiest talent at the club, so no wonder teams above us were interested

But even more dissappointing for me is the fact that we never attempted to replace what we lost. We simply haven't had the same level of creativity within our squad since Yossi left. It's perhaps, imo, the most important thing to address within our squad. Someone who has the skill and intelligence to unlock those defences, especially at UP where as we saw last season, if you can't break down those defences with skill and guile, you end up trying to break them down by attrition. Not the best football to watch, and not really the West Ham way

Having said all that, I'm not saying Yossi is the only player out there who could perform that role for us. But at the same time, we have to be realistic about our place in the food chain. We aren't going to be chasing the likes of Ronaldinho or Arseshavin in terms of creative play makers. Yossi is much more the level we realistically need to be looking at

Maybe Dyer/Faubert/Bellamy would provide us with enough creativity, I'm not sure. But the bottom line, as far as I'm concerned, is that we'd have a far better, and more balanced squad were we to re-sign Yossi

[Romford]

Did he really do anything that wrong to this club ??

He agreed in principle to new contract then the Mickeys offered him Champs League football...if we didn't have his signature on the contract then thats our fault. My only hang up is the peanuts we got for him at the time !!

As for his performances....some people seem to have better memories than me as i always thought he put an awful lot into games. Yes his 2nd season wasn't as great but i would still have put him in every starting 11.

Anyone who'd rather have Fred than Yossi in their team doesn't look at the game the same as me...

[Whufc06]

Agreed Romford, he did what 99.9% of people would do when he said he wanted to go the the Mickeys. People forget than the players, unlike us, are not fans of WHU. And I also agree that he always put a hell of a lot of effort into his performances and got stuck in a lot more than his size suggested he would.

[hammerdivone]

Anyone who says we didn't miss him last season didn't go last season. Be honest. It was sh*t wasn't it?

The football wasn't brilliant last season but it wasn't brilliant the season before when he was here, unless I missed something. Even the season before that he has a few moments of decent quality but he was hardly getting the fans off their seats every game and carving opposition defences open at will, was he? Unless I've forgotten.

We did miss something last season but I'm really not sure that it was Benayoun.

I think we missed the services of Bellamy and Dyer far more than Yossi.

Would he be a useful squad member? Yes

Would he come on this basis? No

[Arch Dandy]

I'd say we did miss something last season, bigtime, and it was the sort of creativity that Benayoun provided previously

See I don't remember him creating that much. He wriggled around, could play a nice ball, wasn't afraid of a tackle but he wasn't setting the world alight carving creating goal scoring chances and hardly every pulled the trigger when he had the chance.

As for his performances....some people seem to have better memories than me as i always thought he put an awful lot into games. Yes his 2nd season wasn't as great but i would still have put him in every starting 11.

He put himself about well in his first season but I don't remember him as this creative force as some seem to, his second season he didn't want to know... I'd put him about level with Ljunberg, both have some nice touches but don't really offer any serious penetration.

[I8CHAVS]

He is good and we would benifit from a plaer of his caliber, but all that being injured but then ****ing playing for Israel b*llocks gave me the ache.

[Hambrosia Stu]

I'd say we did miss something last season, bigtime, and it was the sort of creativity that Benayoun provided previously

See I don't remember him creating that much. He wriggled around, could play a nice ball, wasn't afraid of a tackle but he wasn't setting the world alight carving creating goal scoring chances and hardly every pulled the trigger when he had the chance.

I totally agree. To a point. He used to frustrate the hell out of me at times. The sort of player I used to hate having on my side when playing, as you'd make the run, but he'd have to turn his man another 3 times, by which time the chance had gone

But I'd go as far as saying that for every one of those where he didn't pull the trigger at the right time, there was one where he set up a goal scoring chance when it looked unlikely

At times it seemed he needed to beat his man 3 or 4 times. But that's what we've been missing, someone who can beat his man with pure skill and guile. Sure the likes of Dyer and Bellars beat men regularly (phnarr!), but more often than not it's by using pace to take them past their man. Given no space, Yossi would often somehow wriggle past opponents when it seemed there was no room to do so, due to his excellent close control

Load of old b*llocks anyway, his return, by the sound of it

[simon1982]

Can someone give me a good definition of what exactly a creative player is? It seems to be another one of those fluffly terms that people bandy about without ever really having a definition like "technique".

Eyal Berkovic!!!! Miles better then Yossi.

[davids cross]

Regardless of the pros and cons of Benayoun I just don't see it happening at all.