Forum | General Discussion

Having finally been re-selected for England, Jarrod Bowen was the sent on a 'mission to nowhere' by his attention-seeking team mates. In what was clearly an exercise of giving Southgate's 'B' team a run out and attempted retrospective blame removal, Bowen was virtually ignored for the entire 'Snore Draw' friendly against Australia at Wembley last night.

James Ward-Prowse was omitted from the England squad entirely, and boy did they miss him. James Maddison's dead ball deliveries were so poor even the ball itself got deflated at one point! Someone must have put something in Maddison's tea or hypnotised him into wanting to take short corners ONLY, he was throwing 'hissys' at those who failed to comply.

If Maddison was bloody minded, then Southgate was bloody ignorant! It was totally pointless to play Bowen if all the England manager wanted to do was to show how ill-suited the Hammers player would be to his 'team' then he succeeded brilliantly.

Bowen was made to 'endure' the full 90 minutes of this turgid encounter, meaning he will definitely NOT feature in the 'real deal' game that follows against Italy. It seems that Southgate has been going to the 'Sam Allardyce' school of recalcitrance when it comes to selecting players outside of his favourites and not from within his comfort zone.

Bowen was ON FIRE before joining up with the England squad, it is to be hoped that Southgate hasn't managed to put a complete dampener on that heat! - Ed

Due to the 'saturated' media coverage that now encompasses West Ham, particularly since the club has appeared in Europe three years on the spin. There appears to be a growing tendency for certain outlets to insist on having a scapegoat in the team.

Last season it was Tomy Soucek, he received pelters from all and sundry as his forward role was sacrificed in order to keep Declan Rice happy. This season Thilo Kherer has become the latest player in the cross hairs, as has Pablo Fornals. Both players give their all when called upon but are unable to get as much game time as they would like. This is the result of David Moyes finally having a 'proper' squad!

A quick glance at the Hammers bench this season compared to a few seasons ago shows just how far the club has come. With the progress made there will be the inevitable fall out of players not featuring as much as they used to, but that is how 'big clubs' are!

Fans obviously have their own opinions and are entitled to 'have a go' when they think a player isn't putting in a shift, but the widespread and unfair criticism being levelled at some of the clubs 'fringe' players is counter productive and seems as if it is generally for the good of media outlets who want a bit of dirt to be connected with the club.

Hammers fans are neither blind nor stupid when it comes to appraising their players and most would suggest that others not directly associated with the club should "shut their mouths". Give players a chance before trying to drag them down should be the order of the day, a sentiment felt by the vast majority of the Hammers faithful.

It is an inverted compliment that West Ham have become a target for the media boo boys, hopefully they will find some other club to spread their poison about sooner rather than later! - Ed

Having become a 'serial offender' when it comes to outrageously inept refereeing decisions in what is supposed to be the 'best' league in World football, there has been a clamour to 'relegate' Peter Bankes from the field for at least one month, with many seeking his permanent removal from the list of 'elite' referees.

Having disgraced himself previously with his erroneous handling of various games, the supposed specialist then compounded his list of 'crimes' with his 'performance' in London on Sunday for the West Ham v Newcastle game during which he took poor decision-making to an al tie low that has brought criticism from right across the football fraternity!

The 41year old has already topped the disciplinary charts with the amount of red and yellow cards he has dished out, with Sheffield United being his prime recipients swiftly followed by West Ham. How he can be allowed to officiate further is beyond a joke, especially for teams like Sheffield who need every point that they can get to avoid being relegated straight back down to the Championship.

Calls for Bankes' demotion are the least that should be adhered to, a complete ban on him refereeing or heaven forbid taking up VAR duties should be put into force IMMEDIATELY, he CANNOT be allowed to ruin more games, which left to his own devices he most certainly will! - LN

Now it is a natural instinct among supporters of ALL football clubs to question the ability of those officiating each game.

Time and time again supporters feel that their team have been 'ROBBED' as a result of poor refereeing or dubious V.A.R decisions and the game in London this afternoon between West Ham and Newcastle was NO exception!

It might seem like sour grapes but the referee, Peter Bankes had an absolute shocker! Normally things tend to pan out during a game with the referee being told how well he did or didn't do in the first half of games allowing him to 'adjust' his decisions in the 2nd half, well Bankes was NOT for turning!

In fact the ref compounded his earlier 'curious' decisions by continuing and ramping up his 'one man war' against ALL those wearing Claret & Blue! His decision to award the visitors a free kick when it blatantly should have gone to the home side led directly to Newcastle equalising after Hammers had gone ahead from a well worked LEGITIMATE goal crafted by Emerson and Antonio which was neatly put away by Tomy Soucek.

The inertia of the game completely changed after that as the Toon were able to capitalise on some poor defending and go 2-1 ahead. Bankes' 'sins' continued throughout the 2nd half as he gave so many decisions against the Irons some might suspect some type of betting scam was in place!

David Moyes switched things up late in the game by bringing on Mo Kudus who obliged with his first Premier League goal for the club. Things might have got even better as the now silent Toon fans looked on as Jarrod Bowen's late effort went agonisingly wide of the post.

Some will say the draw was a fair result, whereas some might say the referee was a total with his name if it ended in the letter R instead of S! It will be interesting to see how the BBC remove the referees's a *anker chant of 60,000 people in the as yet unnamed London Stadium.

As the BBC have been having a 'gub fest' love in regarding ALL things Newcastle they will probably say Newcastle were under par due to having played PSG in the Champions League. Well the Toon played AT HOME against PSG on Wednesday, Hammers played away in Germany on Thursday, so who should have been more tired?

Peter Bankes...you need to get yourself out of the Bookies and straight down to Specsavers as soon as possible! - Ed