Rumour has it that Lingard had a £110 thousand pound watch stolen from the dressing room after the Everton game and the only people who had access were two physios two players and the kit man so that seems to be the news that the club are trying to keep quiet and away from the papers....If true that will fester untill it is resolved.......to a player it is not a lot but it is the principle and being able to trust your colleagues.
Jesse Ligard's impact since he arrived at the London Stadium on loan from Manchester United has been nothing short of brilliant, goals, assists, you name it. Such have been his performances that his value has rocketed to the point where it is becoming increasingly unreachable by West Ham.
Manchester would not sanction a 'right to buy' clause in lingard's loan deal, consequently they will use his 'contribution' to Hammers unlikely, and ultimately failed, attempt at reaching the Champions League as a rod to break the Irons back, essentially they will price West Ham out of the market, as there are plenty of other suitors out there for his services both at home and abroad.
There are some who say the quality of Lingard's performances have dropped significantly of late, as is often the case when a player has 'come in from the cold', their adrenalin levels are on 'full chaff' initially, but then the physicality of what they are doing catches up with them.
It may be unfair to judge Lingard over the last few games because the 'nuts and bolts' of the team have changed so much due to injury and suspension, obviously the most notable being Declan Rice, how the team has missed him for the previous six games, a run which saw all the good work of the previous months come undone.
With the Champions League now out of sight barring a miracle, Hammers have to pick themselves up and ensure qualification for the Europa League at a high enough position to avoid the preliminary rounds, or the dreaded and awfully named 'conference' Cup!
One player who may well prove to be invaluable for the remaining games is Said Benrahma, his sublime goal against Brighton to draw Hammers level was hopefully his first of many for the club, the weight will have been lifted from his shoulders and fans will now see the real player inside that has just been waiting to shine.
David Moyes responded when asked by reporters whether that goal was what Benrahma has been waiting for and suggested that he is hoping that there is more to come from the talented winger.“Yes, and so have we. We have been waiting on a goal and we got one tonight. We brought him in with that in mind and I am glad he has got that first goal and hopefully he will go on and get a lot more.”
One of the reasons Moyes has been unable to select Benrahma in his starting line up is that Lingard and the Algerian International play a similar style of football, so the Hammers manager has been spoiled for choice, but has had to try and accommodate an 'expensive' loan signing, in conjunction with a loan signing made 'expensively' permanent.
The lower in the table Hammers finish, the less likelihood there will be of making Lingard's loan deal permanent, and David Moyes, who everyone now realises is NOT a managerial dinosaur, has a track record of guiding players through the tricky task of facing top quality teams week in week out, and he could well be forced to 'convert' Benrahma to replace Lingard.
This is not as easy a task as it looks, Moyes took months to integrate Jarrod Bowen in to the first team after he had arrived from Hull City, likewise he took a long time to fully utilise the 'Duracell Bunny' that is Pablo Fornals , but Benrahma has it all in his locker to become a truly great player for West Ham, his silky skills will be a crowd pleaser when fans are finally able to attend games, and it is testimony to the players temperament that he has got his head down and worked hard when given the opportunity, a prerequisite for any Moyes first teamer.
Of course in an ideal world West Ham will make lingard's move permanent, but we don't live in an ideal world, and as we have said before, Lingard's form has dipped of late, and it will be interesting to see how he gets on against the Baggies and the Saints in the final two games of the Barclays Premier League season. - Ed
I wasn’t a massive Moyes fan, more from his days at Everton and although results were good they weren’t that pretty on the eye. Not quite Allardice but close. However I have to say what’s grown on me is this cohesion and winning mentality. It’s so strong that we expect the team to win every week. This season has been remarkable in that Moyes’ has managed to get blood from a stone. If you look at yesterday and the personnel, we’re fairly average. The Czech boys have been brilliant but they aren’t world beaters. Lingard is a decent top 6 player or sub, Ogbonna is the wrong side of 30, Dawson is a really good Champs player as is Bowen, Fornals is ok but inconsistent and Antonio bless him is another Wanchope. Apart from Rice none of our players would get into the teams above us. So be thankful people it could’ve been a relegation battled season again. We’ve had an amazing run, we’re still mathematically in with a chance of top 4 with 2 games to go, I’d have taken that at the start.
Brighton: Sánchez, White, Webster, Burn, Moder, Groß (c), Bissouma, Alzate, Jahanbakhsh, Trossard, Welbeck Subs: Steele (GK), Karbownik, Tau, Caicedo, Mac Allister, Lallana, Connolly, Andone, Zeqiri
West Ham: Fabianski, Coufal, Dawson, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Rice (c), Soucek, Bowen, Lingard, Fornals, Antonio Subs: Randolph (GK), Fredericks, Johnson, Balbuena, Diop, Noble, Benrahma, Yarmolenko, Odubeko
Budgens/Aldi/Lidle/Poundshop
Yup thats where we need to be going and buying not at the big named over inflated over rated places.
Toney/Loftus Cheek maybe Cairney/Armstrong not outstanding individuals but good team players but much more importantly realistic players who we could afford and not pie in the sky £35/50 million players who as we know can be just as bad as any in lower leagues,Batshuai thank goodness we never got him even after we kept trying 2/3 times to loan as well.
So boys who are your realistic targets?
Controversial maybe but as brilliant as he has been for us for me it will only ever be a short term thing.....he had something to prove and a point to make which he has done remarkably well but will it continue? i am not so sure and financially would it be a good deal in these current times? forget Europe because that is not the money spinner everyone thinks it is unless of course you are in the champs league....for me as a Cameo he has been unbelievable but i just do not see it lasting IMO...so a big thank you Mr Lingard but for me as a permanent signing i think not but that is only my opinion many others would say i am mad and of course they are entitled to but at the end of the day its Moyes the money men and of course the player himself to make the decision.
Hammers manager David Moyes will be pondering as to just how he is going to do a loaves and fishes with his, what will be immensely meagre, transfer budget. Unfortunately his hands are tied behind his back as a result of the impact Covid -19 has had on football finances, and as a result of his predecessor emptying the cupboard in it's entirety and more some!
West Ham struck it incredibly lucky with the initial loan and then purchase of Tomas Soucek from Slavia Prague, he was followed by his team mate Vlad 'the impaler' Coufal, both players have been a revelation and a major contributing factor in Hammers unlikely push for a European slot.
The pair arrived for a total of around £26 Million including Soucek's loan fee, which represents astonishingly good value, to put things in to perspective, the same amount of money Hammers lost on Sebastien Haller, and around the same amount of money Hammers are just about to lose on Felipe Anderson!
Although other teams are now 'sniffing around' in the Czech Republic for players, Hammers do have the jump on them because of the 'favourable' arrangements they have negotiated with Slavia Prague in the past as well as those they may do in the near future.
One other very interesting aspect of the 'Czech' mates situation, is that in addition to building up a good reputation with Czech based clubs, Hammers also have key connections among the players' representatives, one such person being Tomas Soucek's agent, Pavel Paska.
Significantly Paska also represents 18 year old super star in the making Adam Hlozek, Hlozek has attracted plenty of attention due to his fine form for Sparta Prague this season. 11 goals and nine assists in 21 games is pretty good going for an 18 year old, particularly in a league that is not renowned for being 'gentle'!
Many 'foreign' players who arrive in the UK are shocked to discover the pace and 'brutality of the Barclays Premier League, this unfortunately was apparent from the get go with Haller, and Anderson could only take one season of it before he started to run scared following a nasty back injury picked up against Sheffield United.
There have been no such problems with Coufal and Soucek, therefore it is no surprise that Moyes is looking at signing Hlozek despite his young age, he has shown the ability to thrive at a 'higher' level and could be available on the type of deal that could well suit West Ham, namely either another loan to purchase, or more likely a 'structured' permanent deal that would probably contain more caveats and clauses than a Grays Inn drinking den.
There may be those who think that Hammers sticking to the Czech market is blinkered, to which we would say "it is the only market that hasn't come back to bite the club on it's L'arse!" Whether by luck or judgement, West Ham have found themselves a niche market ahead of all the rest, it is now up to the board to exploit it, by doing so they can kill two birds with one stone, well three actually.
Getting good players that the manager wants, will placate him, and the fans, and it would have an added bonus of the club being able to operate within tight constraints WITHOUT a massive dip in quality, a proverbial win win. - Ed
F**ki*g Hell
I have two season tickets and received the expected news that I wasn't lucky in the ballot for tickets for the last game of the season. I am really disappointed, loved to have been there even with a reduced gate, a few beers with bruv and mates, Honest Burger on the way home celebrating a win and Champions League football next season... Ok, maybe not the last point :o)
Just wondering, does anyone on The Org know anyone with a ticket? It looks like a Corporate Ticket stitch up and probably heading for the Popcorn munching Tour Operators (65 will love that :o) )
I have a few pals with tickets ranging from the cheap to the over priced Club London's and none were "Lucky".
Would love to hear of a genuine fan getting a ticket, the cynic in me says there wont be many!!
News that Galatasary and Besiktas are interested in signing Felipe Anderson from West Ham has been greeted with a mixture of resignation and joy, tempered by the reality that his sale would represent yet another massive financial loss incurred by the club in the fall out of the 'Pellegrini' era.
Sebastien Haller's sale to Ajax at a £25 Million loss grabbed all the 'negative' transfer headlines, but it can be argued the sale of Anderson, at a price rumoured to be a paltry £7 Million represents an even bigger loss than that of the Frenchman. Anderson cost the club £36 Million, and as he is approaching the last year of his contract David Moyes had a difficult decision to make about the Brazilian, sell for a small fee and also get his £80,000 per week off the books, or bring him back and try and turn the player's form around?
So we are talking about potentially a combined loss of just under a staggering £50 Million! Pellegrini's other profligacies, although nowhere near as catastrophic, Issa Diop and Pablo Fornals, have justified their inflated price tags, with Fornals in particular actually playing like he belongs at the club, the jury is still out on Issa Diop, there is definitely a good player in there somewhere, he just needs to concentrate and learn from the Og.
Pellegrini's profligacies and the Covid pandemic have left a massive gap in Hammers' finances, and while the club is not alone in suffering financially, the double whammy of Pellegrini and the Pandemic has left the club on it's knees, without the proverbial pot to use!
Despite some of the quite frankly ludicrous prices being quoted for players in the Press, the reality is there will be a proliferation of loan deals between clubs, as most will struggle to find the money to fund permanent deals. There will of course still be one or two deals done that cannot be justified financially, but will be 'vanity' signings, West Ham have done enough of that kind of dodgy business in the past to last a lifetime.
If David Moyes sticks to his acquisition ethos, the club will do relatively well, if it chases rainbows the manager doesn't want, then it will end up with dreams that fade away.- Ed
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