Forum | Non-Football Related

Hammers captain in all but name, Declan Rice, had an 'interesting' game for England in the epic 2-0 victory over ze Germans at Wembley. Dec's Jekyll and Hyde performance was split in to two halves, during the first half Declan looked very uneasy, got himself booked early doors and spent a lot of time with his arm in the air looking like he was trying to hail a London Taxi!

The second half was an entirely different matter though, many players would have been disheartened by receiving a yellow card so early on in a match of such significance, particularly a holding midfielder, and when Dec's 'co-enforcer' Kalvin Phillips picked up a yellow, it seemed as if their task had been severely compromised, but it was not to be. Declan Rice flourished in the second half, and like all great players, he adapted to the situation and then played with intelligence and aplomb.

Ironically, it was the players, ahead of the commentators who lauded Rice's contribution, as did the studio pundits, they recognised the selfless but aggressive roles both Declan and Kalvin Phillips played in the victory, what they did was NOT glamorous, but it was effective, they snuffed out the German playmakers forcing them to play long or wide.

Given their age and relative inexperience, the combination of Rice and Kalvin Phillips fully justified Gareth Southgate's selection, the England manager takes a lot of stick for his team selections, but in this instance, he more than got it right.

England's next opponents are the Ukraine, what are the odds for Yarmolenko to score against England? Should England overcome the Ukraine in Rome, their next fixture could see them facing the Czech Republic, so there could be three West Ham players on the pitch at the same time

Wouldn't it be so West Ham if it were the club's Czech Mates who put the 'mother country' out? - Ed

The 'Angel of Ogbonna' is 34 years old, 'Les Dawson' is 32 and Fabian Balbuena has left the club, so there would appear to be a centre back crisis, with there being only two ageing incumbents. Obviously two centre backs are not enough, especially as neither one is a spring chicken.

Various names have been touted, both domestically and from all round and beyond, a media writers dream that takes up the column inches until West Ham eventually sign a proper striker, which has become a bit of a cause célèbre. Letting Balbuena leave was a risky course of action, given how the wafer thin squad is, however it is par to the course of what appears to be a Moyes' Pellegrini player cull, if so David Moyes must have a plan, mustn't he?

By the time he is finished, Moyes will only have the superb Pablo Fornals, Lukasz Fabianski and one other player left from the 'Pellegreedy' era, step forward the 'monster' that is Issa Diop. When looking at Diop it is easy to forget actually how young he is, his towering frame makes him look much older, as such he has been unfairly blamed for the odd error he has made.

Some of Diop's recent showings were poor, the player looked completely devoid of confidence and looked like he needed to go on one of Kiev and Psycho's 'little boot camps' for a while, just to reintroduce him to the 'dark arts' of 'defenderism'!

Diop is a class act, a player who can only improve who admittedly maybe needs a kick up the back side, but maybe needs a comforting arm, that's the manager and his coaching team's job. Diop has a lot in his locker, watching him he seems more like a central midfielder who can play as a centre back, instead of their opposite. The Frenchman reminds us at the Org of a young Rio, Diop is comfortable on the ball and possesses a hell of a shot, and of course is very decent in the air.

Even if Moyes does decide to stick with Diop, which is apparently what he wants to do, that still leaves Hammers seemingly woefully short. Well the answer is close to home, what is the point of having a youth system if you don't promote players to the first team from it? Also what is the point of buying players you don't play?

In Frederik Alves the club has a superb player, virtually tailor made to step up to the plate, he in conjunction with Diop could provide a solid young pairing that could play together for the next FIVE years at least! In these Covid financial fall out times, clubs have to think on their feet and creatively move forward, West Ham has always been known as the Academy of Football, isn't it about time the club returned to it's roots? Only this time keep it's best players instead of flogging them off the first time someone flashes a few quid. - Ed

The murky world of football finances has always been 'mudded' by strange accountancy terms that leave the layman baffled and that is exactly the intention. The most common term most people read is the ubiquitous "undisclosed' fee, when clubs reveal, or in most cases don't reveal the actual fee paid for a player.

The reasons are duplicitous, and one of the principal elements is 'amortisation', yes it does sound like some kind of 24 hour anti-perspirant or 'love' scent advertised by Johnny Depp, but actually it is a term used to describe a 'scaled' system whereby a player's value generally decreases the longer they are at a club, with the coefficient being how long there is left on their contract as well as contract renewal clauses inserted when the initial contract was enshrined.

Confused yet? You are supposed to be, essentially to understand the minute details involved you have to be an accountant! To put things into Layman's terms, some of the catastrophic losses Hammers have 'endured' through Pellegreedy's transfer profligacies will be offset against TV revenue and any operating profits, if any, during the next fiscal year.

So the losses generated by Haller, Anderson, Wheelchair, Yarmolenko and possibly Diop in the near future are not as tragic as they first look. In a way West Ham are a bit like a person on low income who receives Universal Credit, as soon as they actually earn anything, 65% of that 'additional income' is offset against their benefit, meaning that for many there is a 'grey window' whereby it is more financially beneficial NOT to earn any income, it is an anomaly but one that exists, I occasionally work with a charity to help people caught up in this 'under class' which is why I understand the issue. 

If you think of West Ham as a Barclays Premier League benefit claimant it becomes easier to understand, the club is currently losing money, but if it started to make money it would be tax liable, therefore ALL the losses are written off against tax liability, which in Hammers case means the difference between receiving a massive 'assessment' or a Nil request for payment.

The main expenditure of the club is on wages, but offset against that cost is also the magic 'amortisation' element so despite having been thoroughly 'spanked' on Pellegredy transfers, the club hasn't sustained as much long term damage as it initially seems.

Although the club might have 'got away with it' in the short term, HM Tax authorities look very badly on companies that continue with loss making activities that they then write down against tax, and the last thing the club needs is to have HM revenue and customs on their doorstep, HMRC being the ONLY authority that DOESN'T require a warrant to enter anyone's premises.

Financially West Ham have been skating on thin ice, hoping for a minor miracle, and that is exactly what they got when David Moyes, his support staff and the team managed to attain 6th place in the Barclays Premier league against all odds, events like these rarely re-occur, it is up to the Hammers board to be brave and not to bullshit as they have done consistently in the past, because they can't keep getting away with it! - Ed

The expression cracked record doesn't mean much to a 'soshall' media driven audience nowadays, even a 'blipping CD' has become a passé expression, so perhaps an Xbox digital glitch or server outage is more of a 'current' term. Whatever phrase you care to use, it wouldn't be far off describing West Ham United's pursuit of 'fresh legs' for what is an ageing and wafer thin squad.

There is a fine line between hitting the panic button and sitting on the fence so long that the world passes by. David Moyes has an 'extremely' limited transfer budget to operate with, players sales are unlikely to yield any form of substantial funding, the best that can be hoped for is a 'weight loss' off the wages bill!

Although the news outlets are full of this club buying that player etc, the fact is very little real business has been concluded as yet, there has been the usual 'frenzied' speculation, but most clubs have kept their powder dry until the Euro's are completed.

The positives of delaying deals far outweigh the negatives, in that although prices may go up if a player performs well, the prices go down if they don't. If the history of international football tells us anything, it is that a player can shine brightly at a tournament, but then fail to replicate that high domestically, Hammers' Andriy Yarmolenko being a classic example, stunning for the Ukraine, a cart horse for West Ham!

Even the most optimistic of Hammers fans will know it is unlikely the club will reach the same points tally next season as it did during the season just completed, other teams will 'bounce back', meaning mid table is probably the best that can be hoped for, although of course that is far more favourable than the 'traditional' relegation scrap fans have become used to on a depressingly regular basis.

Next season will be one of consolidation, at least another 12 months of pain will have to be experienced before David Moyes can finally throw of the shackles of the 'Pellegreedy' era, only then will the manager be able to move forward without being hampered by an insanely high wages bill.

Hammers will remain one of the highest wage payers, but at least the wages bill will make some kind of sense. Losing Yarmolenko's £115,000 per week and Anderson's £85,000 per week trims an eye watering £10 Million per year off the wages bill.

So while fans might get irritable at the club's apparent lack of activity, they should be mindful of 'buying for print' and concentrate far more on buying for the future, by that we mean the next few years, not the next few months. It is time West Ham stepped out of the shadows and fulfils it's destiny to become the 'big club' it should always have been given it's massive fan base.

To successfully move forward the club needs to be more pragmatic and efficient, more importantly the club MUST learn from it's past mistakes, if it doesn't, the same circle of 'nearly' will occur, and keep doing so until the harsh lessons learned are acted on. - Ed