Ashton Stays Home

Most of the rumours today seem to be about why Dean Ashton has not travelled with the rest of the squad to Austria.

Opinion on the matter seems to be divided, unfortunately for Ashton neither side of the divide seems to favour the West Ham forward. Most seem to think that either Dean is fit and has been left behind because he will soon be leaving the club or that he has picked up another injury and is therefore no longer worth the bother.

There is a rumour that Ashton has told Zola he has to be the first choice up front and that Zola has told him that he has to prove himself. This implies that Ashton has not travelled to Austria because of a rift between him and the management.

The other argument is that Dean is not fit enough to play and has stayed in London to work on an individual fitness regime. Ashton was supposedly more or less fit at the end of the season so the argument here is that he has picked up another injury.

Being an eternal optimist I'm hoping that the club have decided that Ashton is still not quite match fit and, rather than risk him picking up an injury, feel there is more benefit him working on his own programme of fitness.