Forum | Non-Football Related

West Ham United take on Ipswich and Wycombe in a unique double header set of friendlies this tuesday afternoon at 2PM BST, information about the line ups is vague at the moment, but we shall endevour to upload when they are fully available, although given these games are being played in the strangest of circumstances errors will occur. The Ipswich match costs a tenner to watch vi Ipswich's media streaming platform whereas the Wycombe match is being streamed free of charge.

Ipswich: Holy, Donacien, Chambers, Nsiala, Ward, Dozzell, Downes, Bishop, Sears, Drinan, Edwards. Subs: Cornell, Ndaba, Huws, Nolan, Judge, El Mizouni, Folami, Smith.
West Ham: Randolph, Coventry, Cresswell, Balbuena, Alese, Soucek, Yarmolenko, Anderson, Haller, Wilshere, Diangana. Subs: *Roberto, Cardoso, Lewis, Kemp, Odubeko. * Yes that is the same Roberto who nearly got the club relegated on his own!

Wycombe Wanderers: Stockdale, Grimmer, Trialist-LB, Charles, Trialist-CB, Thompson, Pattison, Trialist-CM, Kashket, Parker, Samuel.
West Ham: Martin, Lanzini, Baptiste, Noble, Bowen, Fornals, Ogbonna, Masuaku, Antonio, Johnson, Cullen. Subs: Anang, Akinola, Adarkwa, Longelo, Silva, Rosa.

NB: None of Ryan Fredericks, Issa Diop, Robert Snodgrass, Declan Rice or Lukasz Fabianski feature in either game as it is believed they needed rest ahead of the fixture pile up that includes the International games due to be played at the beginning of September.

West Ham United do like a protracted transfer situation, it is one of the reasons the Press adores the club, never a dull moment and always good for a 'throw away' line. Think of some of the past seasons' transfer fiascos, Gomez, Bacca etc, so any attempted deal to bring QPR's Eze Eberechi to the London Stadium was always going to be drawn out, and thus it appears.

The proposed and desired on off move has been subject to an awful lot of media attention, who have speculated three different destinations for the talented 22 year old Eberechi, this is just what QPR wanted with London clubs Crystal Palace and newly promoted Fulham vying with West Ham for the players signature.

Initially it seemed as if Hammers had the edge over the competition based on the fact that Jordan Hugill had been on a successful loan spell at Loftus Road, it was thought he could be used as a makeweight in the deal which would have left Hammers with possibly an extra £10 Million to pay. Unfortunately as often happens in these situations, prior wage agreements can become stumbling blocks and that was the case with Jordan Hugill, his £38,000 wages were just too rich for QPR to facilitate, whereas his final destination newly relegated Norwich City, with their 'parachute' payments, were happy to stump up the cash.

It is now being suggested that QPR 'covet' Josh Cullen who enjoyed a relatively successful spell on loan at Charlton, his wages are not such an issue and he could possibly be the ideal player to use in part exchange for Eze Eberechi. Cullen is 24 years old and realistically has a horde of talented players ahead of him in the pecking order at West Ham, so a move would suit the Republic of Ireland player and the West London outfit. The clincher is that Cullen is currently only receiving £10,000 per week, which is less than 1/3 of what Hugill was receiving so a deal might yet still happen, although it is becoming increasingly obvious that the Irons are now having to pay for the 'Pelligrinophile's' profligacy' which involves having to stand by and watch teams like Villa, Watford and Leeds blow the club out of the water when it comes to bidding for players that become available.

As with many aspects of life, sometimes things have to get a lot worse before they can get better, hopefully West Ham's ill fortune and propensity for making costly mistakes has bottomed out and the club can move forward, albeit with an insanely low, bordering on non existent, transfer budget. - Ed

There has been much media chat about the sale of Jordan Hugill to Norwich and Albian Ajeti to Celtic, Hugill's £36,000 per week contract was due to expire on June 30th 2021, so to get those wages off the annual bill and get what will eventually be around £5 Million for a player in the final year of their contract wasn't the appalling piece of business that it is being made out to be. To lose a combined £9 Million on the deals to sell Hugill to Norwich and Ajeti to Celtic, without even factoring the wages they earned while contracted, was not a good bit of business, but compared to the catastrophic purchases made by other teams it seems par to the norm.

Clubs, not just West Ham, have been providing a gravy train for greedy agents and a breed of ferile youngsters, not all of them obviously, who only want to make a fast buck rather than knuckle down and learn how to ply their trade. Hammers fans can expect a few more 'miserable deal' departures, as the club desperately seek to balance the books in a 'flexible' environment that could see the absence of fans at stadia for almost the entire season, despite the protestations from hopeful government ministers to the contrary.

Ajeti and Hugill were low profile departures, the next 'tranche' won't be quite so, one or two of the 'super stars' so expensively assembled will also go, maybe more if buyers can be found during this incredibly tight financial period, there might not be any takers, and those that are will be thin on the ground and looking to exploit the situation to the fullest degree.

As we have mentioned before, all is not lost, realistically, if it had to, the team could get by with only the addition of a couple of full backs and possibly a central defender, but again as we have said before the club are paying 80% of Winston Reid's wages while he is on loan at Kansas FC,why not bring him back as a reserve player?

Sometimes the finances and politics of professional football beggar belief, in no other industry could such policies prevail! - Ed