Forum | Non-Football Related

Many apologies to Celtic supporters for using a headline which will bring back painful memories of THAT night against Caledonian Thistle. This afternoon they filled as many seats as they were allowed for the friendly in the Sun against old boy, David Moyes's West Ham.

Were West Ham that good, or were Celtic that bad? The answer probably lies somewhere in the middle. The fixture was part of Celtic's preparations for their crunch midweek Champions League qualifier against FC Midtjylland, but the game didn't go as planned at Parkhead.

Celtic put on a show for the first 20 minutes, Hoops skipper Callum McGregor curled in an early opener to give the home crowd a lift, but Michail Antonio absolutely bullied Celtic's young defenders, scoring a quick-fire brace before earning the penalty, captain for the day Mark Noble netted from the spot.

Celtic started the second half brightly, just as they had in the first, Ryan Christie pulled a goal back for Ange Postecoglou's side five minutes after the break courtesy of a dreadful mistake by Darren Randolph who had replaced Fabianski for the second half. It was however just a temporary blip, as Said Benrahma replied with a picture perfect goal that saw him put both goalkeeper and defender on their backsides before slotting home. Jarrod Bowen then followed Benrahma's goal with a finish of absolute beauty having been given a superb pass by the Algerian International.

Celtic then made 10 substitutions, David Moyes waited before Jarrod Bowen was replaced by substitute Armstrong Okoflex, signed from Celtic this summer, he scored against his old club with five minutes remaining, as if to rub salt in Celtic's wounds, he hardly celebrated. One fly in the ointment for Moyes was that he was forced to bring on Issa Diop to replace Angelo Ogbonna, who worryingly limped off injured, just before McGregor was gifted the ball by Manuel Lanzini , promptly guiding a shot from the edge of the box past Lukasz Fabianski.

West Ham : Fabianski (Randolph 46), Fredericks, Dawson (Alves 77), Ogbonna, Cresswell, Noble, Lanzini (Coventry 66), Bowen (Holland 87), Fornals (Forson 87) Benrahma (Oko-Flex 77), Antonio (Johnson 72)
Goals: Antonio 23, 32, Benrahma 54, Bowen 74, Oko-Flex 85

The Celtic players looked shocked by the end, their minds clearly on the huge game they face in midweek. As the commentators said at the end of the game, their (Celtic) fans can only dream of the amount of money West Ham have spent on players.

The gulf between the Scottish Premier League and The Barclays Premier League was clearly shown today, it did also illustrate that while things are far, far from perfect at West Ham, they could be an awful lot worse, just take a look at Celtic's fall from grace and Rangers as well, back in the day both Glasgow clubs could attract players like Gazza and Henrik Larsson, not forgetting Hammers own, Paolo Dicanio! Be careful what you wish for. - Ed

Manchester United's announcement of Jadon Sancho's signing will be the last opportunity for Jesse Lingard to make his 'should I go, or should I go?' decision. Sancho's arrival will knock Lingard further down the pecking order at Old Trafford, limiting his already sparse chances of playing 1st team football even more.

Manchester have played a canny game with Lingard, their loan deal with West Ham was stacked in their favour and they are reaping the rewards with several clubs now interested in Lingard. Hammers essentially put Lingard in the shop window for the Red Devils and it is now them who benefiting most from the deal.

West Ham did get an inspired spell from Lingard when he arrived, he had a point to prove and his performances reflected that. He did however go off the boil a little after his initial massive impact, we are not in anyway saying he wouldn't be welcome back at the London Stadium, but it is doubtful that he would have such an impact for a full season.

If Jesse comes out publicly stating he wants guaranteed playing time, then he will probably leave Manchester United, unfortunately more than likely to one of Hammers rivals, if he says nothing then he'll be staying at Old Trafford. David Moyes will have been more than painfully aware of the possible outcome of the 'Lingard' affair and will have made contingency plans, possibly in the shape of West Brom's Pereira.

There comes a point where faith alone isn't enough, maybe it really is time to move on from Jesse Lingard, thank him for what he did, and he can thank the club for what it did for him. Another West Ham could have been! - Ed

Nat Phillips is the latest Liverpool player to have been 'linked' with West Ham, the spin and rumour mill, essential elements of any tapping up process are already being put in place. You know the way it works, big club wants player from 'little' club, big club's manager publicly 'admires' player from little club, little club's player's head gets turned, big club's manager then says that he cannot discuss the destination of a player currently signed to another club.

It's a fit up, pure and simple, not as unfair as say PSG and Manchester City's manipulation of their 'sponsorship' revenues, but nevertheless still a move big clubs get away with, and by big clubs we mean many of the initial members of the 'septic six' breakaway league.

Liverpool's apparent interest in Jarrod Bowen didn't just happen, it just happened to become news as a result of their media department working overtime, much like C&H do for GSB. The fear of Hammers fans is that the Board will sacrifice Bowen in order to retain Declan Rice, whereas fans would prefer the retention of both players.

Ironically, one of the reasons Rice has refused to sign a new contract is that he is yet to be convinced that the club will make good their promise of the new acquisitions required in order to make the club regular competitors in European competitions. So selling Jarrod Bowen would hardly send out the best of messages to Hammers talisman would it?

Liverpool have several 'fringe' players that they would like to punt, the Anfield outfit see West Ham as a club in desperate need of fresh faces, but without a pot to piss in and therefore there for the taking. David Moyes's transfer targets are either being purchased by other clubs or are being priced out of the market by their clubs, not a particularly good set of circumstances to be doing business in.

West Ham can do better than accepting Liverpool's cast-offs, Bowen is a vital component of the Hammers flying machine that David Moyes has constructed, Bowen's energy is a crucial element of the fast counter attacking Iron's front line. The club is already seriously in danger of losing Declan Rice, losing another vital part of Moyes' young team would be truly catastrophic! - Ed

With 'transfer fever fully blown around the Barclays Premier League, particularly West Ham United's rivals, Hammers fans are beginning to feel increasingly edgy as the transfer window rumbles on with apparent complete inactivity from The London Stadium.

As we have already written before, over 90% of speculated transfer deals are complete bullshit with the remaining 10% only offering around a 1 in 10 chance of having any truth in them, so essentially only around 1% of what you read eventually turns out to be true.

Even mentioning the 'S' word makes fans' blood boil given the amount of 'S'trikers Hammers have been linked with, even the expression 'linked' has become hackneyed, linked was probably real back in the day around the same time when Wimpy offered a bender brunch with 'linked' sausages.

So, Striker, midfield enforcer, left back and goal keeper all need reinforcements, in addition an extra centre back would help. These requirements are known to anyone and everyone, but all is not lost. Hammers famous Academy, which went fully under the radar during the management of Big Sam, Slaven Billic and Manuel Pellegrini, has finally managed to come up trumps with it's current crop of young players, a mixture of boys who have been with the club since early adolescence and youngsters brought in from other clubs.

Frederik Alves, aged 19, has already been promoted to the first team squad due to his impressive performances, whereas he was originally meant to spend a further year with the U-23's, his progress has been so prolific it would be stupid not to promote him. Alves is just the tip of the iceberg, Thierry Nevers, Levi Laing, Armstrong Okoflex and Pierre Ekwah Elimby have all been quietly recruited by David Moyes during the 'phoney transfer war', they join a whole host of bright youngsters who are just itching to progress.

Aji Alese, Joseph Anang, Harrison Ashby, Jamal Baptiste, Dan Chesters, Kai Corbett, Conor Coventry, Nathan Holland, Emmanuel Longelo, Mipo Odubeko and Freddie Potts are just some of the 'quality' youth players available, and there are more to follow!

So if David Moyes can do a 'loaves and fishes' number with his paltry transfer budget and acquire said striker, midfielder, left back and goalkeeper, then things are looking rosy, the club have always generated great players, the last time their was such a plethora of young talent was during the Harry Redknapp era which produced Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Glen Johnson, Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand.

The future will be nowhere near as gloomy as people seem to think it might be, so long as Moyes is given the funds he was promised to do the business HE wants, and not necessarily what the Board wants. -Ed