Utter Tosh! Irons 'Linked ' With Kalidou Koulibaly

Living not far from Park Lane, it is easily within a person's remit to walk past all the Aston Martin, BMW and various other high end vehicle manufacturers, with Ferrari and McClaren being just down the road in Knightsbridge and once in a while pop in to the gleaming showrooms hoping that a rooky salesman might invite you for a test drive, when offered, most people generally accept.

So news that West Ham have emerged as shock contenders to seal a £70 Million deal for Napoli star Kalidou Koulibaly, should really be taken with a significant pinch of salt, this 'breaking news' is in addition to the proposed moves for two south american stars with a combined transfer release value in excess of £150 Million! In both cases, the mighty wallet of the two Daves will be up against the wallstreets of various middle eastern families who like to 'play' the Barclays Premier League' and the other European leagues, so realistically the London Boys can be blown out the water by the resources available to others, but they still enjoy being in the same show room!

We should quickly mention that Sheik Mansoor has done wonderful things far and beyond his responsibilities at Manchester City, and is a shining light in an otherwise murky world of corporate ownership. However Manchester City is essentially the exception, so how on earth are a bunch of grunts from the east end going to be able to 'lure' these up market players to the london Stadium?

By cutting the club's cloth according to reality, acting as a shop window for top global talent is not necessarily a bad thing, OK so the player moves on, but that also means during that same period that the club is able to hang on to some of it's own young assets, buying time in order that they may take their place in the match day squads.

There is nothing wrong in being a 'feeder' club, so long as the food you are serving is not your own, but you benefit from it's consumption - Ed