By JAMES CLARK
... yet !! Gianfranco Zola has this group playing the kind of passing football Upton Park demands and, really, have we seen a better striker in regards to holding the ball up, being brave in the air and making a general nuisance of himself in recent years than Carlton Cole? True, the lad couldn't finish in a brothel, but he's also being let down by his partner-in-crime: one Craig Bellamy. His sweet finish at Chelsea aside, Bellers has not produced the goods when it comes to putting the ball in the back of the net during his Hammers career. Sure, his game intelligence makes his play easy on the eye, and he has pace to burn. But whereas you can get around Coley's deficiencies in the starting 11 if you have a goal poacher around him, Bellamy does not afford you that option. (By the way, we're talking about Hammers' nil-1 result v. Aston Villa on Saturday.) The Welshman's game is all about pace mixed in with a bit of cleverness, but the optimal partner of Cole should be someone like Davide DiMichele, who has years of Serie A experience in toe-poking the ball home or, at least, firing one-time shots. Bellamy always seems to take that extra touch, and such elaboration is not what this team needs right now. By all means, sell him and the perennially-crocked Dean Ashton in January. But the rumor that has me sick with worry is the one that sees Matty Upson joining Manchester City for 8 million pounds. What a short-term gain that would be, at the expense of our Premiership status! Don't do it, Gianfranco. Although, it may be out of his hands when the Icelandic moneymen come calling. Anyone miss Terry Brown yet?!?!
