Surely rusty, did he play much last season?
Indeed.
I think his last game for West ham was in an FA cup game in January.
This, along with his lack of pre-season, perhaps personal training plan for the summer, whilst awaiting an offer from a club, will surely mean that it may take a while for us to see him at his best. I'm talking about his physical condition, and more importantly, his decision making, that you can really only get by playing matches.
It's not an ideal situation for us. We'll have to cut him some slack over the next few weeks.
On a side note, many are saying that he's a perfect match for us, playing style. If that's the case, and he was out of contract, and available for free, why didn't we approach him earlier, considering we took Andy Lonergan to the USA? Maybe we did, and he wanted to continue to look for a club, but the deal appears more of a last minute rush job, rather than signing a player who we had been keeping an eye on.