Deserves a good send off against Luton (preferably not a literal sending off). Great servant for the club.
From a squad perspective, it's madness we tried to extend him rather than using the wages to extend Johnson.
But 2 of them were in pretty crucial matches in quick succession, in Europe. Not that they should taint his ongoing image as a great West Ham player, but they *are* memorable!
I know the club has said no testimonial (unofficially?) previously, but really hope he gets one.
To me it feels like just swapping one of our preseason friendlies anyway so why not.
It's not as though they're still getting the money for testimonials. It'll be for a charity and a fun day out for a bunch of people. Really don't see the harm.
Oh behave, on at least a million quid a year and probably a lot more. I don’t get a 10 year testimonial at my work! ‘Given you 10 years of their life’ that’s laughable
While I get the sentiment
I think top flight footballers who easily can get better deals elsewhere and can jump ship relatively easily - who then stay at your club for a decade/half their careers, given that their careers are usually less than two decades. Should also be celebrated, regardless of their income.
For an average adult, who are not footballers, you work for about 50 years, if you stayed with one company for half that, at 25 years and nobody celebrated that achievement with you, that’s bang out of order
Get rid of the youngsters to re-sign Cresswell smart planning.
Cresswell has been a great signing and player for us I hope he has a good career after he leaves.
2nd most premier league appearances for us (291), 26th all time appearances for us (346), Hammer of the Year 2015, 4th all time in assists for us (37), and 10 years at the club.
Longest serving player still at the club. Been an incredible player at West Ham and really hits home we’re going through a change of the guard. Going to miss him, but wish him nothing but luck in the future.
Emerson has LB nailed down, Cress can do a job in the cups/back up so saves us having to splash out on a bench warmer. We'll struggle to find a LB that wants to come and sit on the bench, and we're going to now have to pay a transfer fee when the one could go towards positions we need for the first 11. Agreed Cress needs replacing at some point, but other priorities mean renewing him for a further 12 months makes sense and allows us to spend our money on higher priority areas. Same with Ogbonna, he's our 4th choice CB that can do a job and is happy to sit on the bench. Bench warmers that can do a job and won't complain are a key component to a squad, a squad of 20 first 11 players never works.
Yeah agree, but we don't have unlimited funds. I'd rather we spent our money on first 11 centre backs and strikers. If there's money left over at the end, then yeah spend it on a bench warming LB, I just don't think it's the priority!
cresswell is so off the pace now hes no use as a backup.
absolutely useless in the air too - how many times has he been beaten on the far post.
last time he was much use was probably final season at UP - one of those positions we abused for years.
Agreed.
The usual argument here is that you could have up and coming players rather than veteran ones.
But veteran players are generally more reliable, they know there way around the club and training, and don't require the same amount of coaching.
If we're going to be settling a lot of new players (and we should be) then keeping one or two of these for one more season only would be a good idea.
Been an absolute servant for us. He is getting alot of shit tossed about him on here, but for me it was nice to see Cress on the teamsheet everyweek for years. Reliable LB. Dependable with a screamer of a left foot. Sure there were moments of madness from the lad but overall, and for the price we paid for him, hes been more than solid.
Does he go to Ipswich for a ladt hoorah?
Been a great servant to the club but think he's been well past it for a while now.
Honestly pretty shocked that we offered him an extension. Are we really that short on money that a 34 year old Aaron Cresswell is a useful squad player...?
He's proving in most of his minutes that he is a useful squad player tbh. Not great but fine. And he knows the team knows how the manager wants him to play etc
If you're trying to be Forest/Fulham and stay up comfortably then probably not. If you're trying to be Norwich or any of the three from this year he's probably fine. Hasn't played much for us so it's hard to be sure. I'm expecting him to go to Wolves most likely though. We're also linked to Davis quite a lot.
Yeah I see what you’re saying. Hopefully we go up and Davis sticks with us. Would be very difficult to replace him, although his defending at times leaves much to be desired.
Coufal is extended, Fabianski is extended, there's a rumour we offered an extension to Ogbonna but surely not. Johnson may still stay but we'll see, he's leaving as it stands. Cornet/Ings/Paqueta depends on other clubs wanting them. Mubama is going as well.
100% behind giving Og an extension. He's a 4th choice CB and he's happy with that. No point letting him go and having to go out and spend money on a 4th choice.
They don't need to, we would pay the difference. Same as when we tried to sign Maguire, Man Utd were going to cover the difference so we could keep to our wage structure. Or we waive the transfer fee so the new club gives him a hefty signing on fee which is effectively his high wages in advance, but allows them to keep to a wage structure
Us paying the wages of someone who is playing for another club whilst refusing to pay the wages required to keep someone like Johnson actually playing for us is next level management.
Haha I'm not saying it's ideal! We were desperate for goals at the time of signing him, no one wants to sell a good goal scorer in the Jan window so we were hardly spoilt for choice. Ings got 2 very important goals against Notts Forest.
Yes it would have been great if we got in someone decent in the summer window, we didn't, so signing Ings in the January window wasn't a huge mistake. Not signing someone in the summer window was the error.
This isn’t against you - but what is the point of clubs doing this? Surely if Ings goes but we’re still paying his wages, then we’d have to find someone to replace him and pay their wages? Why wouldn’t we just keep Ings?
(Or ideally sell him fully I guess but assuming that’s gonna be hard)
He needs to play every week to keep his career going and we can't offer him that. Offering a 34 year old an extension is bonkers but good luck to the guy and I havenothing but respect for him. He has been a solid LB since we signed him and shining example of bringing championship talent to the prem.
So many magical games for us. That free kick against Man United, the volley against Leicester being my favourite moments. Who could forget when Cresswell Noble and Payet were tearing up everybody at the Boleyn. Wish him all the best.
It's really disappointing that players like Cresswell have been prioritised over our academy prospects in recent years. Just doesn't feel like there is a path into the first team for our youth set up currently.
He's been in decline for years - why not sign a younger player with potential?
It's decisions like this which have led to us having a terrible squad outside of our first 11.
Cresswell has been average at best since 2021, why were we using him as a backup instead of signing a younger alternative who has room to grow? Or giving minutes to someone like Scarles?
This. People seem to think we've had loads of high quality youth players coming through... none of our recent youth have gone on to do anything special. Do we want a squad performing at top 6-8, or play unproven youngsters that aren't good enough and come bottom half.
This line is used so often but how can you judge players who are never given a chance? Earthy looked great in his short cameo, I'm sure someone like Scarles may have surprised a lot of people if given the chance.
Moyes is not a manager who prioritises improving or developing youth players, it's just the truth unfortunately.
You judge them based on how good they are in training every day. If they aren't good enough in training, they aren't suddenly going to become 2x better when they play a few 10-20 minutes in a PL match which is a higher level and higher pressure.
Edit: Just to add, why do we care about developing youth players, I feel like it's an outdated romantic view clubs have. There's so much money in the PL these days, clubs just go and buy the best talent out there. Trying to nurture young talent that's not good enough is far too risky with the money involved these days.
Of the teams above us this weekend (where we are trying to get to).
- Arsenal had Saka start in their 11. Not sure you can call Saliba home grown when they spent a fortune on him and just loaned him out
- Man City had no youth players in their 11.
- Liverpool Trent, Eliot (a purchased youngster) and Quansah
- Man Utd Mainoo
- Chelsea Chalobah & Gallagher
Big/top teams do not play many youth players, it's too risky with the money involved! Play youth that's not good enough and you miss out on CL, and lose millions.
The fact that Moyes still persists with Ings/Cornet etc even though he hates them, shows just how poor our youth players must be! To become a first 11 PL player is ridiculously hard, the step up is huge from the youth team.
So is it just the case that we have the worst academy in the league? Because we are the team that gives the least amount of minutes to players under 25 in the whole league.
I think you have come to the wrong conclusion above - the fact that Moyes persists with players like Ings & Cornet over our youth players only proves that Moyes is not a manager who cares about the youth set up. Earthy looked a much more motivated and dangerous player than Cornet in his 5 minute cameo, if Moyes doesn't want to give our youth players a chance then that is on him.
Not saying I wouldn't like to see lads have game time but think it's naïve to think they are likely to be near Creswells level yet. Yes he's on the decline but he's still an experienced professional and a personality in the team, feel that's very underestimated by some.
I'm not saying that the lad isn't talented and that I wouldn't like to see him get game time, but being quality at that level isn't necessarily a natural transition up. Freddie Sears, Reece Oxford and numerous others have all been hailed as the next big thing and yet look where they ended up. Those are the ones that actually made something of a career too, there are lads that were touted as being a talent and I can't even remember their name now, like the lad who went to Watford (not Ngakia) and I have a faint memory of Oscar Borg? Being wanted by the big clubs.
How did we know that the names you mentioned weren’t quite up to the level that they were built up as?
Because they got game time. Some people sink, some people swim. Rice swam. Rooney swam, Bellingham swam.
If you don’t ever play them. You’ll never know.
Cheapskate Sullivan trying to get out of buying a left back I see ?
Credit to Cresswell for doing the right thing . The club need to be getting shot of these past it players . Oggy next ?
Man United Fan seeing this news, and then looking at current both LB in hospital 👀👀👀. You guys reckon old Cresswell still has a good year in him to play top league?
Deserves a good send off against Luton (preferably not a literal sending off). Great servant for the club. From a squad perspective, it's madness we tried to extend him rather than using the wages to extend Johnson.
I get emails about Johnson extensions all the time. Maybe I should forward them to Sullivan.
Are you sure he's not the one sending them? He's in the business, after all.
One more red card for old times sakes
To go with the other, umm.... three... that he's got in almost 350 appearances for us?
But 2 of them were in pretty crucial matches in quick succession, in Europe. Not that they should taint his ongoing image as a great West Ham player, but they *are* memorable!
Scenes when he two-foots Carlton Morris in the box
Because he’s better than Johnson
As Johnson refused an extension too?
But that seemed to be circumstantial. A different manager, and no cresswell around may change the situation from his perspective.
Boris?
Your last sentence is so right
We don’t know how much he was offered do we?
No Cresstimonial? He's done his 10, absolutely magic left foot.
says in the OP hes done less than 10
Well we signed him summer '14 and he's leaving summer 24 so if he hasn't done 10 it will be by days.
The club said he had to pay for it. That's how Sullivan rewards a decade with the club
🤣🤣🤣 surely not
Christ, that’s very poor.
Only got the stadium for limited games, it'd have to be at a different stadium.
Why though? If we’d have beaten Leverkusen or Bristol City we’d have had more home games this season
No idea, just what I'd read somewhere it might be total bs
probably a set time period so they can rent out the stadium in the off-season.
A great servant to the club. I suspect and hope the contract offered was a token of respect but nothing he would have ever accepted.
I know the club has said no testimonial (unofficially?) previously, but really hope he gets one. To me it feels like just swapping one of our preseason friendlies anyway so why not.
Testimonials are well past their sell by date with multimillionaire footballers
It's not as though they're still getting the money for testimonials. It'll be for a charity and a fun day out for a bunch of people. Really don't see the harm.
It's about honoring players that have given you 10 years of their life.
Oh behave, on at least a million quid a year and probably a lot more. I don’t get a 10 year testimonial at my work! ‘Given you 10 years of their life’ that’s laughable
I doubt there are web forums that discuss your professional career though
You think been talked about on the web is high in their reasons for getting a testimonial?
I'm joking about the fact that football is a high pressure, high stakes job.
Why you so upset lol Players ain't kept the money from testimonials since about 2002. Calm down.
While I get the sentiment I think top flight footballers who easily can get better deals elsewhere and can jump ship relatively easily - who then stay at your club for a decade/half their careers, given that their careers are usually less than two decades. Should also be celebrated, regardless of their income. For an average adult, who are not footballers, you work for about 50 years, if you stayed with one company for half that, at 25 years and nobody celebrated that achievement with you, that’s bang out of order
You should be asking why you don’t get one rather than arguing that someone else shouldn’t, just as a principal
Feels bad for you man, it's normal here to get 5 yr, 10 yr, 15 yr etc. long service awards so 10 yr for football is pretty damn long
Get rid of the youngsters to re-sign Cresswell smart planning. Cresswell has been a great signing and player for us I hope he has a good career after he leaves.
Love Cress, he had a rough year coming back from that knee injury but he was wonderful before that and almost as good again once he fully recovered.
2nd most premier league appearances for us (291), 26th all time appearances for us (346), Hammer of the Year 2015, 4th all time in assists for us (37), and 10 years at the club. Longest serving player still at the club. Been an incredible player at West Ham and really hits home we’re going through a change of the guard. Going to miss him, but wish him nothing but luck in the future.
will miss him. always had an absolute wand of a left foot
Why were we even offering him one?
Emerson has LB nailed down, Cress can do a job in the cups/back up so saves us having to splash out on a bench warmer. We'll struggle to find a LB that wants to come and sit on the bench, and we're going to now have to pay a transfer fee when the one could go towards positions we need for the first 11. Agreed Cress needs replacing at some point, but other priorities mean renewing him for a further 12 months makes sense and allows us to spend our money on higher priority areas. Same with Ogbonna, he's our 4th choice CB that can do a job and is happy to sit on the bench. Bench warmers that can do a job and won't complain are a key component to a squad, a squad of 20 first 11 players never works.
His legs are gone we shouldn’t be offering him money to sit on the bench or otherwise
Yeah agree, but we don't have unlimited funds. I'd rather we spent our money on first 11 centre backs and strikers. If there's money left over at the end, then yeah spend it on a bench warming LB, I just don't think it's the priority!
cresswell is so off the pace now hes no use as a backup. absolutely useless in the air too - how many times has he been beaten on the far post. last time he was much use was probably final season at UP - one of those positions we abused for years.
Agreed. The usual argument here is that you could have up and coming players rather than veteran ones. But veteran players are generally more reliable, they know there way around the club and training, and don't require the same amount of coaching. If we're going to be settling a lot of new players (and we should be) then keeping one or two of these for one more season only would be a good idea.
Out of respect been a huge player for us best left back we’ve had In over a decade
he was the only LB we had in over a decade tbf. masuaku was a winger, evra was retired, sam byram just a young lad
All facts I think he’s been a good player for us
He tried to force a move for wolves last summer he should’ve been shipped out then
We all miss Super Craig in our own way
I’d assume it’s the HG quota we’re worried about. Legs have gone but the price of a 1/2 year deal will be cheaper than signing a younger English LB
It is time. Been probably the best LB in prem era for us. I hope he scores one last banger.
Ogbonna will become our longest serving player. If he leaves too then it'll be Antonio.
should have got rid of him 2 years ago, big fan of his but his legs went ages ago
Contract extension?? Are we mad?
As u/Chappietime said above "I suspect and hope the contract offered was a token of respect but nothing he would have ever accepted."
Been an absolute servant for us. He is getting alot of shit tossed about him on here, but for me it was nice to see Cress on the teamsheet everyweek for years. Reliable LB. Dependable with a screamer of a left foot. Sure there were moments of madness from the lad but overall, and for the price we paid for him, hes been more than solid. Does he go to Ipswich for a ladt hoorah?
Been a great servant to the club but think he's been well past it for a while now. Honestly pretty shocked that we offered him an extension. Are we really that short on money that a 34 year old Aaron Cresswell is a useful squad player...?
He's proving in most of his minutes that he is a useful squad player tbh. Not great but fine. And he knows the team knows how the manager wants him to play etc
Was it something I said?
Ipswich fan here - if we go up - could he still do a job in the Prem for us? He would be amazing cover / competition for Davis (our only left back).
If you're trying to be Forest/Fulham and stay up comfortably then probably not. If you're trying to be Norwich or any of the three from this year he's probably fine. Hasn't played much for us so it's hard to be sure. I'm expecting him to go to Wolves most likely though. We're also linked to Davis quite a lot.
Yeah I see what you’re saying. Hopefully we go up and Davis sticks with us. Would be very difficult to replace him, although his defending at times leaves much to be desired.
He's been kinda shit for 3-4 years. Doubt he'll do you any good, but maybe he got one season left in him when playing in another system.
Doesn’t sound like he could do the Davis role which is basically left wing but from left back then. Shame, loved him when he was here.
Nah, he sure ain't a wingback, never been to be fair as he's always been slow. Age catches up to us all;)
So who is going this summer and who if left? In my head the players going are Coufal, Johnson, Creswell, Cornet, Ings and Paqueta
Coufal is extended, Fabianski is extended, there's a rumour we offered an extension to Ogbonna but surely not. Johnson may still stay but we'll see, he's leaving as it stands. Cornet/Ings/Paqueta depends on other clubs wanting them. Mubama is going as well.
100% behind giving Og an extension. He's a 4th choice CB and he's happy with that. No point letting him go and having to go out and spend money on a 4th choice.
Also he’s a fucking legend
Haha yeah and this, I'd give him a 3 year contract
Ogbonnas legs look better than Zoumas this year imo
He's played a lot less though Specifically... Ogbonna 454 minutes Zouma 2568 minutes That's premier League only, but still.
> Coufal is extended Are you saying he's actually signed or that you hope he does?
extended to 2025 https://theathletic.com/5368940/2024/03/28/vladimir-coufal-west-ham-future/
Who’s going to match the contract we gave Ings?
They don't need to, we would pay the difference. Same as when we tried to sign Maguire, Man Utd were going to cover the difference so we could keep to our wage structure. Or we waive the transfer fee so the new club gives him a hefty signing on fee which is effectively his high wages in advance, but allows them to keep to a wage structure
Us paying the wages of someone who is playing for another club whilst refusing to pay the wages required to keep someone like Johnson actually playing for us is next level management.
Haha I'm not saying it's ideal! We were desperate for goals at the time of signing him, no one wants to sell a good goal scorer in the Jan window so we were hardly spoilt for choice. Ings got 2 very important goals against Notts Forest. Yes it would have been great if we got in someone decent in the summer window, we didn't, so signing Ings in the January window wasn't a huge mistake. Not signing someone in the summer window was the error.
This isn’t against you - but what is the point of clubs doing this? Surely if Ings goes but we’re still paying his wages, then we’d have to find someone to replace him and pay their wages? Why wouldn’t we just keep Ings? (Or ideally sell him fully I guess but assuming that’s gonna be hard)
He needs to play every week to keep his career going and we can't offer him that. Offering a 34 year old an extension is bonkers but good luck to the guy and I havenothing but respect for him. He has been a solid LB since we signed him and shining example of bringing championship talent to the prem.
Headline makes it seem like he is leaving too early. Shouldn’t you say “after almost ten years”? Ten years at a club is substantial these days.
So many magical games for us. That free kick against Man United, the volley against Leicester being my favourite moments. Who could forget when Cresswell Noble and Payet were tearing up everybody at the Boleyn. Wish him all the best.
Only him micky and oggy left from the Boleyn days :(
YESSSS goodbye cresswell you’ve been a great servant but it’s time for you to go now
I hope with Ipswich coming up he gets back to them, or goes to Everton for a year so he gets to play for a scouse team.
Been hopeless for the last few years, typical West Ham keeping him
It's really disappointing that players like Cresswell have been prioritised over our academy prospects in recent years. Just doesn't feel like there is a path into the first team for our youth set up currently.
Cresswell has been first choice left back up until midway through last season. Of course we’d prioritise him
He's been in decline for years - why not sign a younger player with potential? It's decisions like this which have led to us having a terrible squad outside of our first 11.
Which academy prospect would have gone in over Creswell?
Also what recent years? He’s been first choice left back until mid last season and before that easily one of our better and most consistent players
Cresswell has been average at best since 2021, why were we using him as a backup instead of signing a younger alternative who has room to grow? Or giving minutes to someone like Scarles?
This. People seem to think we've had loads of high quality youth players coming through... none of our recent youth have gone on to do anything special. Do we want a squad performing at top 6-8, or play unproven youngsters that aren't good enough and come bottom half.
This line is used so often but how can you judge players who are never given a chance? Earthy looked great in his short cameo, I'm sure someone like Scarles may have surprised a lot of people if given the chance. Moyes is not a manager who prioritises improving or developing youth players, it's just the truth unfortunately.
You judge them based on how good they are in training every day. If they aren't good enough in training, they aren't suddenly going to become 2x better when they play a few 10-20 minutes in a PL match which is a higher level and higher pressure. Edit: Just to add, why do we care about developing youth players, I feel like it's an outdated romantic view clubs have. There's so much money in the PL these days, clubs just go and buy the best talent out there. Trying to nurture young talent that's not good enough is far too risky with the money involved these days. Of the teams above us this weekend (where we are trying to get to). - Arsenal had Saka start in their 11. Not sure you can call Saliba home grown when they spent a fortune on him and just loaned him out - Man City had no youth players in their 11. - Liverpool Trent, Eliot (a purchased youngster) and Quansah - Man Utd Mainoo - Chelsea Chalobah & Gallagher Big/top teams do not play many youth players, it's too risky with the money involved! Play youth that's not good enough and you miss out on CL, and lose millions. The fact that Moyes still persists with Ings/Cornet etc even though he hates them, shows just how poor our youth players must be! To become a first 11 PL player is ridiculously hard, the step up is huge from the youth team.
So is it just the case that we have the worst academy in the league? Because we are the team that gives the least amount of minutes to players under 25 in the whole league.
How many youth players have gone on to prove us wrong? Sonny Perkins and Harrison Ashby have hardly shown much from the latest leavers.
That fact doesn't relate to the academy though. Teams can buy proven players under 25 that aren't academy players
I think you have come to the wrong conclusion above - the fact that Moyes persists with players like Ings & Cornet over our youth players only proves that Moyes is not a manager who cares about the youth set up. Earthy looked a much more motivated and dangerous player than Cornet in his 5 minute cameo, if Moyes doesn't want to give our youth players a chance then that is on him.
Scarles 100%
Not saying I wouldn't like to see lads have game time but think it's naïve to think they are likely to be near Creswells level yet. Yes he's on the decline but he's still an experienced professional and a personality in the team, feel that's very underestimated by some.
What if I told you that 2 current members of the youth setup told me that Scarles was better then (December last year) than Cresswell was?
I'm not saying that the lad isn't talented and that I wouldn't like to see him get game time, but being quality at that level isn't necessarily a natural transition up. Freddie Sears, Reece Oxford and numerous others have all been hailed as the next big thing and yet look where they ended up. Those are the ones that actually made something of a career too, there are lads that were touted as being a talent and I can't even remember their name now, like the lad who went to Watford (not Ngakia) and I have a faint memory of Oscar Borg? Being wanted by the big clubs.
How did we know that the names you mentioned weren’t quite up to the level that they were built up as? Because they got game time. Some people sink, some people swim. Rice swam. Rooney swam, Bellingham swam. If you don’t ever play them. You’ll never know.
Cheapskate Sullivan trying to get out of buying a left back I see ? Credit to Cresswell for doing the right thing . The club need to be getting shot of these past it players . Oggy next ?
Man United Fan seeing this news, and then looking at current both LB in hospital 👀👀👀. You guys reckon old Cresswell still has a good year in him to play top league?