Forum | General Discussion

There are many annoying aspects to modern life, including those generated by the 'policing' of sports clubs, particular the governance of elite football teams. Much like the ever changing off side rules, the definition of 'tapping up' is open to various interpretations and is NOT fit for purpose.

Explaining the tapping up process to someone who is not a football fan but a devotee of another discipline is extremely difficult because they ask the pertinent question of "why is it allowed then?" They cannot understand how a football club, usually one with aspirations of becoming top of their league and usually bankrolled by a national pariah state or with dubious funding, can possibly get away with 'public' approaches for another club's prized players while they are still under contract.

What is the definition of tapping up and how is it interpreted? Firstly it should be noted that rules regarding tapping up were drawn up BEFORE the advent of social media or smart phones, furthermore the analysis of what constitutes tapping up is made complicated because a person's opinion is not necessarily that of the corporation or organisation that employs them, comments made can be dismissed as private conversations that have been overheard or recorded without the consent or knowledge of said 'tapper up'.

The tapping up process is therefore currently incredibly easy to perpetrate, first get your media team to get one of their social media 'yute' to generate interest in a player via instagram or twitter or any other of a myriad of platforms, secondly upload 'rumoured' quotes from club's manager 'admiring' a player and third sit back and wait for the red tops to reprint...simples, tap up in place!

Sunday's visitors to the London Bowl Liverpool and their manager Jurgen Klopp, are no strangers to the dark art of tapping up but are by no means the only transgressors, far from it. The Kops pursuit of Virgil Van Dyke from Southampton was a case in point, the media involvement in the move was invasive and ultimately successful for the Mersey side club. Everyone and anyone know that the player was tapped up, it was all played out in public but Liverpool were never sanctioned.

Hammers fans of a certain age will remember only too well what happened to Yossi Benayoun, having committed himself to signing a new contract with the Irons, Yossi became 'convinced' by all the nice things that had been said about him by Liverpool and promptly rejected his new deal and signed for Liverpool instead, DESPITE having a '*Levy agreement' in place.

Jarrod Bowen is Liverpool's most recent 'target' from West Ham to tap up, their attempts at seducing Declan Rice having fallen on deaf ears ages ago they now feel the need for some 'Bowen speed'. It is to be hoped Liverpool are given short shrift and that ANY attempts to sign Bowen, by fair means or foul, are firmly rebuffed by placing an insanely high release clause value of £80 Million plus, EVEN if there isn't actually a clause, after all, as we have always said, "everyone in football knows, there ain't no sanity clause".

The time has finally come for Hammers NOT to sell it's precocious talent to the opposition,especially NOT Liverpool, Man U or Tottingham! - Ed

* Definition of a levy agreement: To make an arrangement, shake on it, call it a 'gentlemen's agreement' and then entirely renege on the promise by citing there is no 'written' contract.

Genk: Vandevoordt, Munoz, Sadick, Lucumi, Arteaga, Heynen (c), Thorstvedt, Ito, Hrosovsky, Paintsil, Onuachu Subs: Chambaere (GK), Leysen (GK), McKenzie, Bongonda, Tresor, Tomas, Eiting, Ugbo, Oyen, Preciado
West Ham: Areola, Coufal, Dawson, Diop, Cresswell, Noble (c), Rice, Benrahma, Lanzini, Masuaku, Antonio Subs: Fabiański (GK), Randolph (GK), Fredericks, Johnson, Zouma, Ogbonna, Baptiste, Souček, Král, Chesters, Fornals, Bowen

Unusually the club chose to include Vlad 'the impaler' Coufal along with David Moyes in it's pre-match presser ahead of the tie away to Genk tomorrow evening, clearly Vlad has done his English homework as he responded to questions without an interpreter or a prompt sheet, his presence couldn't have had anything to do with a certain Czech investor could it?

When asked about his manager, the team and his fitness as well as his need for goals the Czech defender said "1,000 games is a huge success for him. For sure we would like to win and give him a good performance from us. We'll do everything for him tomorrow. The fans are appreciating our performances and results. I can only promise that we will do everything to continue to deliver results like this for the supporters."

"I am good and ready to play. I try to push myself on the limits every game. Sometimes it is possible, sometimes not and I am going to do everything to carry on with the performances I gave before the injury.."
"Of course Ben Johnson is a young lad from the academy. He has done well when I was injured and i need to praise him because he scored a goal and has done very well in the defence. "It's good because you need to double up in the positions if you want to be a good team. He pushes me to improve more and I'll do everything for the team performances like always." When asked if he would like to score in the fixture he reminisced about the time he scored against Genk while playing for Slavia Prague. "It would be simply perfect. I remember the game with Slavia, we won 4-1 and went to the next round and we could have a similar success if we win the game tomorrow". He continued "I’m waiting for my first goal for West Ham for too long and I have to shoot to score a goal, and I have to score soon!"

All of this looks as if Vlad is going to play on Thursday, but David Moyes is known for keeping his cards close to his chest, as ever he managed to side swipe any questions regarding player fitness, "We have a couple of knocks and niggles behind the scenes that we’ll have to manage. Nothing serious but one or two who might not make it tomorrow."

On the prospect of another win meaning Hammers could win the group as early as tomorrow..."I don’t know if it was the plan but my expectation was that was what we wanted to do. What we didn’t know was how we’d cope [with the schedule]. It’s worked for us with the squad and we’ve got really good results using everybody we have in the squad."We’ve still got quite a lot of work still to do though."
Moyes was remarkably low key about reaching his 1000the game as a manager merely saying "Personally it’s a big day. When you start you rarely think you’d get to 1,000 games. It shows you have a longevity and consistency in the game and I’m proud to get there".

And that was that for the presser, short sharp and sweet as a 'grizzled' Scot and a gnarled Czech can be! - LN

Having acquired three straight victories in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League Cup so far, David Moyes knows a win or a draw would see his team sitting top of the group with two games still remaining to play. Hammers travel to Genk for their return leg of the fixture while actively pursuing success in the League and in the League Cup, in addition there is the FA Cup to come as well!

Moyes does have a bit of a head scratcher when it comes to his team selection for Thursday evening's game, Genk have so far been the best team Hammers have faced in their group, the eventual 3-0 scoreline did not do justice to the visitors who had arrived on the back of some dreadful domestic results. However, buoyed up by their performance in London, last weekend Genk managed to thrash their rivals Zulte 6-2 AWAY from home in the Belgium Pro-League, so they will be NO mugs.

The problem for the Hammers' manager is how to maintain the momentum, as he has already stated he wishes to do, while also looking after the fitness of his players. Last time against Genk the team was: Areola, Johnson, Dawson, Diop, Cresswell, Rice (c), Souček, Yarmolenko, Lanzini, Vlašić, Bowen, with Subs: Fabianski, Randolph, Fredericks, Ashby, Masuaku, Zouma, Ogbonna, Noble, Fornals, Chesters, Benrahma.

Hammers are at home to Liverpool on Sunday, defeat would NOT be a disaster as they are realistically going to finish ahead in the League, but maintaining the momentum would mean pushing them to the limit irrespective of the final score, and to do that ALL the big guns need to be firing on all cylinders.

Not playing Michail Antonio is a given, one sometimes thinks Moyes would rest him no matter what, being a Scot he might just want to make Andriy Yarmolenko stretch his legs a bit for the £115,000 per week the Ukraine captain gets paid! The biggest issue is does he play Rice and/or Cresswell, BOTH players are absolutely key to how West Ham go about their business, and both players had played a helluva lot of games non stop, surely they should be rested, just like big Mikey, if at all possible?

Fortunately, Alex Kral has recovered from his bout of Covid and should be fit enough to play, in theory that should free up 'Decs', but what about Cresswell? Authur Masuaku is clearly NOT a conventional left back, he is incredibly good at bringing the ball out of defence though, so perhaps Moyes may deploy Ben Johnson on the left and possibly Harrison Ashby on the right or Ryan Fredericks, he might even start Vladimir Coufal, although word is the Czech will be on the bench.

At the Org we understand the need to maintain momentum, but we are also painfully aware of what would happen if Cresswell picks up an injury, let alone one to Big Mikey or to Declan Rice. Proposed line up: Areola, Johnson, Dawson (c), Diop, Ashby, Kral, Noble (c), Yarmolenko, Lanzini, Vlašić, Bowen, with Subs: Fabianski, Randolph, Fredericks, Masuaku, Zouma, Ogbonna, Fornals, Chesters, Benrahma, Souček, Cresswell.

That's what we think, what do you reckon? - LN