Moyes's Bubbles Conundrum

Many Hammers fans have been questioning the 'wisdom' of allowing home grown talent Oladapo Afolayan's potential move to Bolton Wanderers on loan with an option to acquire the player on a free transfer at the beginning of next season. David Moyes alluded to the issue in his most recent comments regarding Hammers strikers, or the lack of them to be more precise. His own frustration with Odubeko’s situation, which is complicated by Covid bubble arrangements, is obvious.

“Do we sit young players on the bench and not give them game time? That’s where we’re at with how the fixtures are working out, the other real problem is the minute we put them out of the bubble we can’t put them back in. Our reserves play Liverpool (today) and we can’t then bring them back into the bubble. It’s a difficult situation for quite a lot of clubs. It’s not to do with not having enough players, I’d always like to give the young players a chance. But if I put them on the bench the reserves have no players and the players miss out on game time. “We’ve got Mipo on the bench because we need him, but he could do with game time.”

Deprived of the services of Jesse Lingard, who is on loan from his 'bad parent' club, for the game against Manchester United Moyes needs to have additional fire power up front, Afolayan's controversial appearance against Manchester United in the FA Cup is still fresh in many observer's minds as a result of him being brought on as a substitute, only to suffer the ignominy of then being subbed himself!

Moyes has had to 'juggle' things to such an extent that he could be a circus entertainer in another universe! Some might say he is in one of the biggest circuses on earth already! Man U tomorrow, followed by Le 'Arse' next week are two more season defining fixtures.

We at the Org have almost over used the 'seminal game' tag, but that is what all the remaining games of the season are, each one connects to the bigger picture, and ironically Hammers fate might well be decided by the results of other teams in addition to how many games David Moyes's men go on to win. Leicester, United, Chelsea and Everton all play each other as well as the Irons in the next few games, as a result the Barclays Premier League table could take on a whole new look, that is with the exception of top spot, which despite their recent 'blip' against Manchester's other team, is nailed on for City.

All the West Ham players can do is to try and get the best points return available, and to that purpose winning is at such a premium, that losing and winning can result in a better points ratio than just drawing game after game, despite the Kudos of keeping an opponent at bay. The next few games will see if Hammers fans can hear "wound my heart with a monotonous languor" and know it is a summons to the greatness of future achievements - Ed