No wonder he is smiling

All day at work the talk has been about West Ham signing Tevez and Mascherano from Corinthians. Even though it looked like a one-year loan deal with a chance of them moving on early it still seemed too good to be true.

I had a quick look at the BBC’s message boards and they were buzzing with speculation and much wailing and gnashing of teeth from Man Utd and Arsenal supporters. I’m really not used to such a massive piece of news being about the Hammers. This is like Spurs signing Villa and Ardiles, but even bigger. I was a bit disappointed that we missed out on Chinbonda and then this comes along as (over-)compensation.

But it got better. When I got home and put on Sky Sports News they reported that the deal is a permanent transfer for both players!

There is more to this than meets the eye. Obviously West Ham don’t have enough money to compete for this pair, both stars of the World Cup and still only 22 – £50 million for the two of them would be cheap. Biased as I am, I can see that moving to a club like Man Utd or Arsenal which is playing in the Champions League should be more attractive for an ambitious player.

The involvement of MSI has something to do with all this, and it could be that they will be making a move to buy up the club before too long, but just for the moment us Hammers are just going to look over the squad and drool over the choices Pardew has to make….

In goal he can choose between Green (England International), Carroll (NI International) and Marek Stech (Czech under-17) and Jimmy Walker.

At the back there is Ferdinand, Gabbidon, Konchesky, Painstsil, Mears, Dailly, Collins, Spector and McCartney – hard to pick four from that lot!

In midfield there is Mascherano, Etherington, Benayoun, Bowyer, Reo-Coker, Noble, Newton, Mullins and Reid.

Up front pick any two from Tevez, Ashton, Zamora, Harewood, Sherringham, Cole and Ephraim. I think we will be able to cope with Ashton’s injury now…

Pardew is quoted as saying “We can compete with the best now” and looking at that squad, who is going to argue with him?

Perhaps the biggest surprise is that we have held on to Reo-Coker, surely a future England captain. I am holding my breath, keeping my fingers crossed and urging the transfer window to close before Pardew decides we can afford to lose a player.