By Neil Ravenscroft
October 19 2004

There's a rumour doing the rounds about Paul Merson putting in a loan bid for out of favour West Ham United striker, Bobby Zamora. Bobby Zamora has been the subject of more rumours than just about any player I can remember during his time at Brighton, being linked at various times with Middlesborough, Leicester and Everton, before finaly getting his "dream move" to Spurs. Since then, however, and despite scoring on his debut for Tottenham, the player's star has certainly waned, as he became the makeweight in the transfer of Defoe and then lost his place in the West Ham United starting eleven.

Alan Pardew has already been making noises about Zamora needing to make a big improvement, he is being heavily criticised by elements of the admittedly fickle West Ham crowd, who seem to be still struggling to realise which division they are in, and has been the subject of loan rumours with Hull City being mentioned.

He is a player who needs a loan spell or a move to boost his confidence, being very much a confidence player, and there may well be some mileage in this one, given Merson's current interest in strengthening the front line.