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Manuel 9:01 Wed Aug 25
Kurt Zouma - Signed

OS

Kurt Zouma joins West Ham United

West Ham United is delighted to announce the signing of France international Kurt Zouma until the summer of 2025.



The 26-year-old central defender joins for an undisclosed fee from Chelsea, where he accumulated two Premier League titles, one UEFA Champions’ League winner's medal and one EFL Cup winner's medal during a seven-year career.

A prodigious talent who boasts great pace, strength, technical proficiency and the experience of 165 Premier League and 27 top-level European appearances, Zouma further strengthens manager David Moyes’ top-of-the-table West Ham team ahead of their first-ever venture into the Europa League group stages.

He currently holds eight full international caps with France, having progressed through all junior levels with the national team since the Under-16 age group, and will this week again join up with Didier Deschamps’s squad for their World Cup qualifiers against Bosnia, Ukraine and Finland.

“I’m very happy and very proud,” Zouma said on signing for West Ham.

“My conversation with the manager went very fast. I just felt like he really wanted me to come and join the team, especially a good team that’s started the season very, very well.

Sniper 4:21 Tue Oct 5
Re: Kurt Zouma - Signed

Stowie

Agreed. I don’t like cresswell at left back on a regular basis, he lacks the pace now and there’s limited cover in front of him. It also exposes him and ogbonna.

I liked it last season when we had the back 3/5 with cresswell, masuaku and fornals teaming up down the left - that seemed to work well

Has coufal git a left footed twin I wonder? Imagine him on both flanks!

Charoo 1:26 Mon Oct 4
Re: Kurt Zouma - Signed

Fucking great player, great signing.

Takashi Miike 10:36 Mon Oct 4
Re: Kurt Zouma - Signed

Thursday night "we have they best group of CBs in the league"

Sunday afternoon "dogshit, what a waste of money"



😂

Stowie.40 10:31 Mon Oct 4
Re: Kurt Zouma - Signed

As shit as he was, Toney had him on toast numerous times. But he is still our best CB, the right side of our defence isn’t the problem overall. The left side is dog shit, Ogbonna & Cresswell have proved over the last 2 season they are shit in a back 4, their best performances are in a back 5. They need extra bodies around em.

Rossal 10:28 Mon Oct 4
Re: Kurt Zouma - Signed

Was awful first half yesterday, Ogbonna kept turning looking to play it across to him and he wasnt there at a angle. Meant back to Fab and HOOOF!

His defending was also very poor.......the clumsy free kick on the edge of the box the low point

Got to show better than that for £25M

Takashi Miike 10:20 Mon Oct 4
Re: Kurt Zouma - Signed

still a great signing

nychammer 5:15 Mon Oct 4
Re: Kurt Zouma - Signed

give the man a fucking chance will ya?

The Hammers 12:43 Mon Oct 4
Re: Kurt Zouma - Signed

Very poor

solidbond 12:37 Mon Oct 4
Re: Kurt Zouma - Signed

WTF was he doing for there 2nd goal .

Irish Hammer 4:45 Tue Sep 21
Re: Kurt Zouma - Signed

Kurt Zouma: Why ditching Chelsea for West Ham could be the making of French defender

West Ham had to clear many hurdles in their pursuit of Kurt Zouma but, after just two appearances in claret and blue, it is clear their efforts were not in vain.

Negotiations with Chelsea and Zouma’s representatives were fraught, dragging across the summer before a four-year deal for David Moyes’s first-choice defensive target was finally completed in Paris at the end of the transfer window.

Jesse Lingard proved last season — and with his goalscoring return to West Ham on Sunday for Manchester United — what stepping away from one of the ‘Big Six’ can do for a player’s career, and Zouma looks likely to follow suit following his £29.8million move.

Moyes often takes his time bedding in his signings — Said Benrahma and, to a lesser extent, Jarrod Bowen were eased in following moves from the Championship, but Zouma has been asked to hit the ground running.

After watching from the bench at Southampton, the Champions League winner was thrown in at the deep end at Dinamo Zagreb for the Europa League opener last Thursday before facing up to Cristiano Ronaldo on Sunday.

He excelled on both occasions and it was no coincidence that Ronaldo’s goal came only after he had moved well away from Zouma.

“It was good, it was another battle like any battle,” Zouma said of his tussle with Ronaldo. “He is one of the best players in the world, maybe the best, and he deserves your focus all the time.”

The 26-year-old is an instant upgrade on Craig Dawson, who was a shrewd addition on loan from Watford last season but has begun to decline.

Moyes wants players befitting a club who finished sixth in the League and, in Zouma, he certainly has that, someone who — along with Declan Rice — can set a higher standard.

On Sunday, Zouma made more than twice as many clearances than any other player on the pitch as well as two crucial interventions to stop Ronaldo adding to his tally.

“I thought Kurt was very good,” Moyes said after the Frenchman’s home debut.

“I think his all-around performance, his strength, he did a great job for us and we’re trying to challenge the teams getting talked about winning the Premier League. I think Kurt will help us do that.”

Zouma has settled well on and off the pitch, striking up a close bond with the French-speaking group, including international team-mate and fellow summer signing, Alphonse Areola.

“I met a very good family here, my new family and my new home,” said Zouma. “I am very happy to be here.

“The fans were so loud. I want to make them happy, not by the result [against United] but by the way we play.”

Wils 4:23 Mon Sep 20
Re: Kurt Zouma - Signed

* or McTominay. Bit too slim for Shaw.

Wils 4:11 Mon Sep 20
Re: Kurt Zouma - Signed

"Not examined it closely but Rice may have had a player outside that Lingard could have rolled to."

Yep, grainy, but I think that is Shaw running in that Rice has clearly clocked.


https://twitter.com/Luckyushendra/status/1439603226379046919?s=20

Sven Roeder 3:33 Mon Sep 20
Re: Kurt Zouma - Signed

That said I thought Zouma & Rice were our best two players on the day and it fitted in with the SODS LAW nature of the match (Noble misses, DeGea saves, Lingard scores) that they were the ones involved.

Sven Roeder 3:30 Mon Sep 20
Re: Kurt Zouma - Signed

Its all split second decisions
Knowing Lingard you'd expect him to do what he did and try and bend it in the far corner so you try and force him outside.
Not examined it closely but Rice may have had a player outside that Lingard could have rolled to.

Was a similar but less threatening situation in the Chelsea game when Kante scored. Dier stood off and the midfielder next to him should have closed down but stayed back.
Ideally the defender stands off and blocks where the attacker wants to shoot and the midfielder closes down

Block 3:02 Mon Sep 20
Re: Kurt Zouma - Signed

You want Fabianski to retire?

Hammer and Pickle 3:00 Mon Sep 20
Re: Kurt Zouma - Signed

Fabiański made two world-class saves yesterday. Still want him to hang up his gloves at club level as he is already doing so as an international.

Wils 2:42 Mon Sep 20
Re: Kurt Zouma - Signed

Russ of the BML

"Not digging him out. He had a really good game. It's more of an observation. But the more I watch it the more confused I am with what Rice did."

I think he was torn between trying to cut off the pass and blocking the shot. He probably thought Zouma would manage the block so went the other way. Mistake? Maybe. But had Lingard gone for the pass we would have been praising his intelligence - if it was even a talking point.

In the end, as you say, he had another amazing game and who are we ciritcise?

Pagey 2:09 Mon Sep 20
Re: Kurt Zouma - Signed

‘Flappy’ has been a great signing for us and he played well yesterday.

He’s coming to the end of his career, hence the signing of Areola, but ‘Flappy’? Really?

Athletico Easthamico 2:06 Mon Sep 20
Re: Kurt Zouma - Signed

Time to get Flappy out of goal.

Takashi Miike 1:54 Mon Sep 20
Re: Kurt Zouma - Signed

yes, Russ. It was a strange end to the game, not much of it made much sense :.)

Russ of the BML 1:29 Mon Sep 20
Re: Kurt Zouma - Signed

BTW FWIW - In agreement with most on here. I think Zouma is going to be a beast for us.

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