Can Rat solve West Ham injury plague?
Wednesday, January 30, 2013 at 6:02 AM | by Jack Johnson 
According to Sky Sports, the man who regularly competes with Rod Fanni and Danny Shittu for the prestigious ‘best footballing name of the year’ award is being targeted by West Ham. That’s right, you guessed it, Razvan Rat is Sam Allardyce’s choice to solve his left back problems.
Emmanuel Pogatetz – another cracking name – has already been bought in on loan for the remainder of the season and the Austrian is capable of covering at left back, but if Big Sam is after a specialist in his problem position then 31-year-old Rat could be his man.
The Romanian captain has won numerous league titles with both Rapid Bucharest and Shaktar Donetsk but is out of contract come the summer. The Ukrainian side are therefore keen to do business in January and will surely offer Rat at an affordable price.
The Hammers are also targeting Stephan Warnock in a desperate effort to solve their serious problems on the left side of defence. George McCartney has recently been ruled out with injury and his young deputy Dann Potts found himself in hospital after suffering concussion last week against Arsenal. The 18-year-old landed awkwardly after a clash with Bacary Sagna and will undergo further test and scans in hospital on Thursday to asses the seriousness of the situation.
Jack Johnson
