westhamfans.org

West Ham landed their first signing under new manager Manuel Pellegrini with Ryan Fredericks having agreed to join on a free transfer, the right back earned promotion to the Premier League with Fulham last season but has signed a four year deal having turned down a contract extension in January when the club refused to meet his demands of becoming the highest paid player at Craven Cottage.

Having splashed out just over £10 Million of the transfer money received from the sale of Dimitri Payet on buying Scottish International Robert Snodgrass from Hull City, West Ham will be looking to recoup as much money as possible for the player who was sent out on loan to Aston Villa last season.

The dark shadow that descended over the London Stadium last year currently seems to be a thing of the past, with record season ticket sales, a 'proper' manager and the prospect of exciting talents arriving in E20.

Unless the board of West Ham United are about to perform one of the biggest U turns in the club's history, fans of the club will hardly believe the 'Pellegrini' effect with regards to new signings.

Since arriving at West Ham, serial winner Manuel Pellegrini has prioritised the need for bringing as many young players through the once legendary Hammers' academy and to totally reconsruct the club's defence. Just as well, because along with relegated Stoke City it was the most porous in the Premier League, conceding 68 goals in 38 matches!

As many, often younger, tech savvy Hammers fans anticipated the West Ham United e-ticketing site for season ticket renewals has gone into meltdown and is currently unavailable, visitors to the site are met with the following message :

We’ll be back soon!

Sorry for the inconvenience but we’re performing some maintenance at the moment. We’ll be back online shortly!

It's almost like back in the day when the 'Icelandics' rocked up at the Boleyn and started splashing the cash, suddenly West Ham United were being 'linked' with just about any player who had a pulse and began the tradition of the 'Kieron Dyer' society. Huge money spent and a lengthy contract for an abject and perenial 'sick note' of a player, does that ring any bells?

When the 'Pilgrim' first arrived at 'Gnome Towers' to finalise his move from China to E20, Manuel Pellegrini took along a dossier to show 'Mr David' Sullivan where and how the current squad needed to be revamped. Most interestingly was his apparent in-depth knowledge of the majority of the youngsters on the books, in particular Reece Oxford, Reece Buke, Josh Cullen and Declan Rice all of whom are homegrown players which is important due to the FIFA young player ruling which requires Barclays Premiership teams to have an increasing percentage of 'home sourced' players in their squads.

West Ham United's new manager has been confirmed as Manuel Pellegrini, the 64 year old Chilean has taken over the vacancy left by David Moyes' recent departure. With a three year deal in place it is obvious that there had been some rather detailed discussions as to budget and more importantly hierarchical interference prior to Pellegrini signing on the dotted line.

Contrary to earlier reports by the 'let's give West Ham a kicking' media with an agenda, James Collins was not told that his services were no longer required with a 'cold' e-mail, far from it. The e-mail in queston was sent as a matter of legal requirement from the club's H R department and was necessary in order to comply with various insurance policies in place, something that is in common with all Premier League clubs.