As we have previously written, there seems to be some extraordinary coincidences involving other clubs when West Ham show interest in acquiring a player, whether this is because since David Moyes' arrival at the club the transfer strategy has shifted seismically or not is a matter of debate.
It should be remembered though, that even before David Moyes became manager (both times) clubs like Daniel Levy's regularly enjoyed jumping on to Hammers transfer targets, regularly either outbidding West Ham or showing enough interest to push the sale price higher up than it should have been in order to punish the Irons.
This is not a conspiracy theory, although it must be said that many 'non elite' clubs fans probably feel the same way, the offenders are serial after all. To outside observers Hammers look like a glowing example of a 'good old sporting story', a team assembled out of rejects and those from lower divisions moulded into a 'fighting unit' by a fierce David Moyes, Stuart Pearce, Kevin Nolan and 'Darth Vader' who's always talking into a headset!
Moyes has done incredibly well, his team outperformed last season, but now he has to make the difficult second album in entirely new circumstances, with success comes expectation! If the club can maintain the momentum of last season there is every chance of finishing in the top half of the table, and while that may not seem aspirational, the scars from past relegation battles ares still deep, therefore a season of mid table safety following on from last season, whilst seemingly uninspiring would actually represent real progress, a continued spell of the club being stable would be beneficial for all parties.
As the transfer window closure clock ticks down, there will be loads of click bait scoops for all to view, some might even be true! David Moyes is a canny manager and it is very unlikely that he will get sucked into bidding wars for players, after all there are plenty of clubs who's need to sell their players is as desperate as Moyes's need for buying.
Leicester City are tonight's opponents, we shall be at the Dome, so if the team sheets are inaccurate you can thank the club's broadband facilities. If any of the first team sustains injury you can expect the search for players to go into overdrive, hopefully that scenario will not occur. - LN
