Forum | General Discussion

West Ham fans suffered a miserable defeat in a blistering cold 15:00 kick-off against Crystal Palace.

Individual mistakes, comical errors and incorrect tactics all resulted in us not even having a shot on target, all in all, woeful performance and match.

If Hammers fans look past the dreadful result itself, some questions need to be raised, that performance should’ve screamed to the board that signings need to be made, and not having a shot on target exclaims that.

The fans have suffered enough seeing Fulkrug, Summerville and Bowen out. But when we go a goal down in a game, we look to our bench and currently only have Danny Ings to try to make an impact.

Ingsy can only provide so much, and in the current situation the squad is in, we need a lot more than just him.

There were very few positives from the match, hardly any in fact. Fabianski had one of his worst performances in his time at the club, giving away the penalty initially, and following it up with a blunder once trying to make the save.

The cherry on top would come before the game was put to bed through the penalty, Mavropanos made a last-ditch tackle which can only be described as simply ludicrous, the high foot challenge saw the Greek international acquire a second yellow card, leaving West Ham down to 10 with 10 minutes to go.

Konstantinos Mavropanos will now miss West Ham’s next game against Aston Villa at Villa Park.

Perhaps this is a delusion, but sometimes moments and opportunities like these for players can make their career. With the suspension of Mavro, it would be assumed that Potter will now turn to Kaelan Casey, our young central defender, who has appeared on the bench since Potter’s arrival.

But it's not all doom and gloom! Lewis Orford also made his West Ham debut, coming on for Emerson in the 56th minute, a proud achievement for the 18-year-old who spoke to the media earlier this season exclaiming how his goal for the new season was to break into the first team and finally make his very well deserved debut.

The smallest of lights we have glowing in the club currently is the promising youth prospects we have for next season, talents such as Earthy, Marshall and Potts will return in the summer, with the likes of Casey, Scarles and Orford already being prepped by Potter for the season to come.

A productive rebuild with the youth is what is needed, and it's what our fans have been crying out for, Hammers fans have desperately wanted a manager to utilise the youth academy and, instead of persistently buying players for mass money, maybe realise that we could have a hidden gem of our own under our noses.

We had a summer rebuild under Lopetegui, which didn't go too well... let's hope the one under Potter is more successful.

West Ham: Fabianski, Wan-Bissaka, Mavropanos, Kilman, Cresswell, Emerson, Alvarez, Rodriguez, Soucek, Kudus, Paqueta
Subs: Areola, Soler, Coufal, Guilherme, Ings, Irving, Casey, Scarles, Orford.

Crystal Palace: Henderson, Guehi, Lacroix, Richards, Mitchell, Kamada, Hughes, Munoz; Eze, Sarr, Mateta
Subs: Turner, Nketiah, Schlupp, Clyne, Doucoure, Riad, Rodney, Devenny, Kporha.

It’s not a hidden secret amongst Hammers fans that our striker curse has yet to be solved. Many strikers have come through that have either been simply shocking or injury-prone.

Unfortunately, it appears Sully wants to add to that list. With the latest report being that West Ham United are ‘seriously interested’ in RB Leipzig striker Andre Silva.

The twenty-nine-year-old Portuguese international has currently struggled to find form in recent years. This season Silva has 1 goal and 3 assists in 15 appearances and currently is struggling to find game time for Leipzig.

RB Leipzig signed Silva from Frankfurt for €23,000,000, in which Frankfurt had bought him for just €2,000,000 from AC Milan who’d paid €38,000,000 from Porto back in 2017/18.

Back in 2020, he scored 29 goals and got 10 assists throughout the entire season, a great return which subsequently led to him being recognised as a top striker in Europe.

However, despite this top recognition, he didn’t continue his form as he had just managed 14 goals in the last 3 seasons combined.

Not a pretty site…

But what a surprise, the history of a player doesn’t matter for one man… Poor injury record? Poor form? Not to worry! David Sullivan will always have a place welcome for you, as long as you’re fairly cheap and have two working feet, oh and not to mention, it’s always a bonus if you’re from a popular nation!

If you weren't appealed by the site of Andre Silva, you could always peer your eyes towards the £30,000,000 rated Nottingham Forest striker in Taiwo Awoniyi... who West Ham are also interested in.

The twenty seven year old Nigerian international started his Premier League stint back in 2022 when Nottingham Forest signed him from Union Berlin. His first season saw him score 11 goals in all competitions, and he was the starting striker week in and week out, he guided a seemingly underwhelming Forrest side to safety. Yet, it would all come crashing down once he sustained two long-term injuries in quick succession.

A damaging groin injury at the start of the season saw him out for 18 games, with a further 14 coming later on due to it reoccurring, subsequently banishing him out of THIRTY TWO matches.

Unfortunately for Taiwo, he's now been shoved out of the starting team, with Chris Wood taking his starting position.

To Taiwo's dismay, it's Sully's hooray! An injury-prone striker who earns £50,000 per week, which to be honest, seems a bargain compared to Ings-sauros who's on £125,000 per week, in case you forgot.

Nottingham Forest has made it clear to West Ham that they're only willing to accept a loan with an obligation to buy or a straight purchase in the region of £30,000,000 for Awoniyi.

As much as the club may like the profile of Taiwo, it seems that the price point that they're asking for is a bit steep for the club's liking, so at the moment, other options are being assessed, but Silva currently takes the crown due to the simplicity of the deal and his eagerness to achieve his 'dream of playing in the Premier League'.

Another day of classic 'board' targets, the only difference this time round is that neither of them are Salthouse Clients!