West Ham hoping to nullify Saints new boy

  • by Staff Writer
  • Friday, 5th February 2016

Slaven Bilic is hoping his team can do their talking on the pitch when they face Southampton - and new signing Charlie Austin - at St Mary's tomorrow afternoon.

Former Queens Park Rangers striker Austin is set to play aginst West Ham for the first time since comments made on the KUMB Podcast by co-owner David Sullivan regarding his fitness made the back pages of the nationals.

And although he has largely kept his counsel this week, the 26-year-old will no doubt be keen to prove Sullivan - who questioned his long-term fitness as a result of a previous failed medical - wrong.

Speaking on the KUMB Podcast last August, Sullivan - who was responding to a question from a fan asking why West Ham hadn't made an approach for the player - upset Austin when he said: "They say he has no ligaments in his knee, who knows?

"To sign a player for £15million is a big risk. He could go on for years, but knowing our luck his knee will go in his first game and that's the end of it!

"If we had £100million to spend we may say 'we'll spend £15million and gamble one-sixth of our budget'. But it's not one-sixth of our budget, it'd smash our budget to bits.

"If he'd kept QPR up single-handedly you might say it was different. 16 goals [last season] is still very good, but when we played Queens Park Rangers last year they had to win to stand any chance of staying up - and he wasn't very good [that day]."

Austin eventually left QPR last month for a bargain £4million - a fee than Bilic, whose task it is to keep Austin in check tomorrow, believes was excellent value for money.

"He has proved himself - he's not one of those who has only done it in the Championship," said Bilic during his pre-match press conference yesterday. "It was a bit of a surprise that he went for that kind of money. In England that is a small transfer.

"He would definitely be a player with quality enough to play for West Ham, and for most teams in the Premier League. But we had different targets and we were looking for different type of players. That is the reason [we didn't try to buy him], not his quality."

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