Forum | Non-Football Related

The Hammers set off on Wednesday night through to Thursday morning for their second Premier League summer series game against David Moyes' Everton side.

The game not only started with a very different line-up, but we started the fixture with the same patterns of defensive errors as in the 17th minute, Everton made a mockery of Casey and Kilman, as Everton's team glided through our defence, clear as day, the ball in the back of the net with a easy finish for Gueye who made it 1-0 to Everton.

However, after a few passages of play, a defensive error decided to go in our favour when Everton's Goalkeeper, Mark Travers, punched the ball onto his own head and slipped in Lucas Paqueta who had to shield off the defender to tap it in to an open net, a simple finish from Paqman, but they all count.

Halftime super subs formed the team to look more realistic as to what we could expect, with a struggling Casey coming off the field, as well as Potts, who impressed again but was on a yellow card, so was taken off during the break for Guido.

Niclas Fullkrug picked up the ball and blazed it into the bottom right corner across the goal, making it 2-1 to us, a classy finish for the German, who, coming into next season needs some confidence to bring into the 2025/26 season.

The remainder of the game was closed out, and the final score would end up being 2-1 to us. A few chances closed out the game, such as AWB fooling the entire crowd that he'd scored, but had just in fact hit the side netting and that was that.

Another fixture which demonstrates the need for a Midfielder as well as another Goalkeeper, with the GK having to be the primary option at hand, considering Fodderingham's run out today wasn't ideal to say the least, which the goal will tell you, but he nor Areola can be our starting choices next season, business seriously needs to get a move on.

Yesterday's news essentially confirmed our new 'Hokey Cokey' strategy of one out and one in, but we're not doing it with players, we're doing it with targets!

Sully wasn't afraid to get on the phone yesterday and start spilling out all of the news on targets, bids and who we aren't and are interested in... to put it in his exact words: "West Ham have made an approach, but there are more than 10 clubs in for him. Mendez is his agent and some big European clubs are interested. He’ll leave Southampton, but I’m not too sure it will be to the Premier League.”

Isn't that just inspiring to hear... I guess we'll be moving on to the other targets, such as maybe Ardon Jashari?

As much as all the news is negative, we will be anticipating a lot of movement coming in the next few days, considering that it will be August 1st, where all of the PSR rules reset for the year, which will allow the Hammers to do more business at a more comfortable rate than what we've been dealing with.

Perhaps it is overthought hope, but seeing as PSR has been an 'issue' for us this transfer window, as of August the 1st, that is no longer an immediate issue, so the 'Hokey Cokey' strategy may in fact turn from targets to players but wouldn't hold your breath

Time will tell, but all eyes are now on the West Ham vs Everton game, which is tonight at 23:30...

If it wasn’t already apparent to fellow West Ham fans it would’ve been very apparent that throughout the Manchester United game, Alphonso Areola simply doesn’t suit Graham Potters playing style, and as well as that, he’s lost a yard or two with his confidence.

Three primary goalkeeper replacements have been named throughout the window. Zion Suzuki at the forefront, but his price being deemed too expensive, Hermansen the next option but Newcastle are chasing after him after loosing out on Trafford and now introducing Michael Cooper for Sheffield United… that’ll be fun business to do!

The Englishman is valued at £15,000,000 but is it worth to ‘Cop Cooper?’ If Potter decides to approve this it won’t be a tough deal as I’m sure you’ve guessed… Cooper is a Salthouse client.

Whilst Cooper did also impress last season and actually has decent stats face value, it is underwhelming to hear that the Hammers transfer plan is primarily based around clients or free agents.

But if Graham Potter and the fans are being honest, Areola has been preforming to such a poor level it almost seems as if a lot of people that would replace him would end up being better than the Frenchman simply due to the lack of confidence and lack of ability he’s shown as of late.

The game against Manchester United, albeit a pre-season friendly, demonstrated school boy errors which was persistently shown throughout last season.

Potter likes Zion, the coaching staff like Hermansen and Sully likes Cooper… take your pick!

It seems as if history is repeating itself again. If the club thought that Nayef Aguerd would revitalise our defence, then we seriously need to take a look at ourselves in the mirror.

The game kicked off, and within two minutes, we were already in trouble with Hojlund crashing the ball onto the outside of the post, and just a few minutes after that, the first horror show would take place with Areola dropping the ball and in an attempt to pick it up, he clipped Heaven and a blatant penalty was given. Unsurprisingly, Areola didn't save it and dived the wrong way, giving United the lead.

The remainder of the first half, we didn't do too much, a chance for Ward-Prowse and also a chance for Soucek should've seen us equalise, but it was saved from close range.

Amad Diallo doubled United's lead, but it was ruled out for offside, and that closed out the first half. You wouldn't have had to wait long for it to get worse as in the second half, Tomas Soucek and Areola had a 'communication' error, which gifted the opportunity for Manchester United to double their lead, which they ever so easily did.

Potter really struggled with the midfield again today, and creating chances was practically impossible. Guido Rodriguez and Ward-Prowse in the midfield is the recipe for disaster; we'll be in deep water drowning if it's what we head to Sunderland with.

Our moment of glory came through a longball pass from Tomas Soucek, who played it to Jarrod Bowen, and he'd convert the ball to the top-right corner, which saw the score be brought back to 2-1.

Substitutes did come after the goal, and for the last 25 minutes on the pitch, we were the utterly dominant side in the midfield and attack. Freddie Potts and Fearson revolutionised the midfield for the remaining 25 minutes, as well as Lucas Paqueta, who gave the squad a wave of fresh air as soon as he entered the pitch.

Don't be surprised if in our next fixture, Potter tries something completely different regarding the midfield. Potts provided control and Fearson ran around like a Duracell Bunny, a significant improvement on Ward-House and Guidslow Rodriguez and if the starting squad had been ever so slightly different, the result most likely would've been too.

The other bright sparks would be Malick Diouf and Wan-Bissaka, both of whom provided exactly what was needed for the team; it's just a shame that what was provided in front of them wasn't able to help in the slightest.

Positives, negatives and ups n' downs... it's one thing to make a mistake, it's another to learn from it.