Cottee/McAvennie = Ashton/Bellamy

Der "East London Advertiser" hat in Hammers-Legende Tony Cottee (Bild rechts) einen neuen Kolumnisten gefunden.
In seinen "Ansichten von der Pressetribüne" (Views from the press box) sieht der ehemalige West Ham-Forward Parallelen zwischen seiner legendären Upton Park-Partnerschaft mit Frank McAvennie ("one of the hottest striking-forces in the English League during the latter half of the 80s") und dem Duo Craig Bellamy / Dean Ashton:
"Dean Ashton started and when he's fully fit I think he could form a really good partnership with Craig Bellamy - something West Ham haven't had since John Hartson and Paul Kitson and before that, myself and Frank McAvennie.
"Dean was a real miss last season and there is no way we would have been in the trouble we were in if he had been fit.
"The club have bought in another striker in Henri Camara on loan which is good business. He's very quick and a good finisher and will do well if given the chance. Bobby Zamora's come in for some stick but he was superb last year and as forwards you go through spells where things don't go right. His time will come again."

Interessant ist, dass sich kürzlich auch Cottees früherer Sturm-Partner Frank McAvennie zu Dean Ashton äußerte und meinte, dieser sei noch weit weg von voller Fitness und früherer Form (siehe hier).

Den 3:0-Sieg in Reading beurteilt Tony Cottee, der zwischen 1982 und 1988 für West Ham 92 Tore schoss, als "fantastisches Resultat", und zwar vor allem wegen des überzeugenden Fußballs, den West Ham spielte:
"The win at Reading on Saturday was a fantastic result, not just because of the victory but the style of football the team played and it actually could have been a lot more in the end.
"The performance will give everyone confidence going into the next match and also exorcised the demons of that 6-0 loss last season which was the worst I've seen West Ham play."

In der Tony Cottee-Kolumne kann man auch die Meinung des ehemaligen Forwards über Matty Etherington, Nobby Solano und Robert Green lesen. Den kompletten Artikel findet man hier.