Poyet joins West Ham

Diego Poyet will sign a 5-year contract with West Ham later today. Poyet who turned down a new contract at The Valley after playing just 23 first team games had a choice of Premiership teams to join as well as Monaco and Borussia Dortmund on the continent, but has chosen to continue his career under Sam Allardyce at Upton Park.

I was out with an Ipswich fan last night who was bemoaning the fact that they have just sold their “best player,” Aaron Cresswell to the Hammers. At least they got £4m for him!

Allardyce is under huge pressure to start the season well and alter his brand of play to a more traditional West Ham style and Poyet will be hoping he gets the opportunity to showcase his talents and not languish in the reserves.

A compensation fee will be agreed by a tribunal and what will be interesting is if Poyet makes any comments to why he left the Addicks. One story is that Roland Duchâtelet told him that he could continue his career at Standard Liege and this alongside the treatment of Chris Powell and Jose Riga was the reason for him deciding to turn his back on the club he’d been with since he was 11.