West Ham are either very brave or very stupid.  After the disastrous blow of losing Julien Fabuert, the Hammers moved to replace him with Sweden’s international captain, Freddie Ljungberg.  The problem?  Ljungberg is arguably one of the most injury-prone players in the Premier League.

Internal bleeding in his knee, bruised ribs, back problems, foot injuries, and various hip problems (including one caused by a belatedly infected tattoo); all of these have become familiar to Ljungberg in the last few years.  West Ham have replaced a crock with an injury timebomb.

There’s no doubt that on his day, Ljungberg is an excellent player.  But investing £3m and astronomical wages (the English press reported £60k p/week, whilst the Swedish went for a ludicrous £103k) in a player who seems to have missed at least ten league games in every season of his career is a very significant gamble indeed.

What do you reckon: crock or gold?