It has seemed like an age since West Ham United's underwhelming 3-3 'defeat' to Arsenal at the as yet unnamed London Stadium, so it is only natural that gossip and heresay goes in to overdrive, especially if the players concerned have performed well on the International stage.
Such has been the case for Hammers' international contingent, with all of them playing extremely well for their countries, David Moyes is obviously proud of the platform he has given them to project their abilities to a greater audience, however with there is a caveat involved, namely the increased interest will have teams 'sniffing' around hoping to unsettle players like Declan Rice, Tomas Soucek and 'honorary hammer' Jesse Lingard.
David Moyes has been quick to point out that reaching the Champions League is NOT a pre-requisite for retaining the services of his top players, more like an incentive for the future and confirmation of exactly how far the club has progressed in just twelve months!
Unfortunately at the same time as issuing the 'hands off' notice, Moyes elected to say that if 'huge offers' are submitted for his players, then the club would have to listen to them, he the added it would take a 'bank of England and bank of Scotland bid to prise Rice away from East London, he then added that it would take a 'bank of the Czech republic' offer to entice the mere countenance of selling the club's leading scorer Tomas Soucek.
The problem as we see it is, there are several clubs interested in both players, and each of the 'interested' parties is actually owned by a country, not just their banks! The clubs that are state owned or financed CAN afford to make ludicrous offers, and those that aren't state owned are flush with cash from years of sewing the seeds from their Champions League monopolies.
By the summer Hammers fans can expect to see the back pages occupied with scurrilous rumours about where Rice, Soucek and others might end up, bids from Real Madrid (state owned and financed in all but name), Manchester City (state owned and financed in all but name) and PSG (state owned and financed in all but name) among others.
Retaining the club's top players will be difficult, but not impossible, handing out lucrative new contracts is not necessarily the right way forwards either, the folly of doing so is clearly manifest with the lengthy contracts handed out to players like Andy Carroll, Jack Wilshere, Andriy Yarmolenko and Winston Reid, the latter two are still costing the club £200,000 per week in wages alone!
The top of the Barclays Premier League is looking like a pre-covid French taxi rank outside of the Gare du Nord, by the time Hammers take to the pitch against Wolves this evening at Molineaux there could be an astonishing FOUR clubs, all on 49 points!
So no pressure on Moyes's boys to get the win that would take them in to 4th place then, this is the 'nitty gritty part of the season, and a chance for David Moyes to prove he has neutralised the 'powder puff, flaky hammers of the past. - Ed
