Monday Fan Tests

Expect organised chaos if you are attending the London 'Dome' tomorrow, Judging by how other London clubs have coped with the additional resources required to check fan's Covid vaccine status and /or lateral flow testing, it is going to be a long hard slog to get through the entry 'pinch points'.

Monday night's game against Leicester will be the first time a full capacity crowd has been able to support West Ham in over 18 months, the crowd will be under close media scrutiny as certain scurrilous outlets attempt to promote the theory that Hammers only did so well last season because fans were NOT in the Stadium.

There may be some substance in that observation, but on good match days, especially under the lights, the London Stadium or Dome as it is affectionately called, can be rocking. The point is the football on offer was not particularly appealing as the club had to fight two relegation campaigns, it was only after project restart that David Moyes was able to weave his magic.

The West Ham team fans last saw in person was an entirely different beast to the current team, the unity and desire to work together is a unique quality instilled in the players as a group by Moyes and his support staff. The test regarding fans will be on Monday, hopefully the PAI(n)'s take over talk won't have fans projecting a negative atmosphere, if people do want to vent their spleen at the board, the time to do it is after the game, not before!

That might seem like a fundamental prerequisite of being a supporter, but such is the disenfranchisement between fans and owners, such sentiments could well rear their ugly head at a time that could negatively affect the players.

Apart from the PAI(n) bid, transfer speculation regarding the club's transfer activity, or lack of it has also been ramped up and not in a positive way, again invoking an understandable feeling of discontent among fans that could spill out on to the pitch. However it should be remembered, that with the exception of Jesse Lingard, this is the same team that qualified for the group stages of the Europa League and only missed out on the Champions League by two points and inferior goal difference.

Barring cataclysmic intervention, Hammers have been able to hold on to Declan Rice AND Tomas Soucek as well as Jarrod Bowen, all of whom are coveted by 'elite' teams. Back in the day this would have been unheard of, One or all of the players would have been sold on to make ends meet, the fact that it hasn't happened now, in the middle of the massive fall out from the Covid Pandemic is exceptional!

As is obvious if you look through our archives, we are no fans of Gold & Sullivan and have absolutely no time for 'Lady Sun Writer', but things could be worse. We fully expect at least one player to arrive at the club on a permanent basis during this week, as well as a cheeky loan bid with an offer/obligation to buy for another, we predict both will arrive from Ligue Une.

Moyes has searched far and wide for players, and has somehow managed to adopt the Old Rolling Stone's advice in his recent transfer dealings. : "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, well you might find, you get what you need" -Ed