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There has been SO much media focus on how difficult a task West Ham face for this evening's quarter-final 2nd leg of the UEFA Europa League Cup against Lyon, that you could assume the club hardly need to travel to the Rhone region of France for the fixture because the home team have all but won it already!

Contrary to some information being negatively spread on the Internet, Declan Rice will NOT be suspended for the Europa League Cup semi-final should Hammers beat Lyon on Thursday evening's quarter-final. Decs had to play a disciplinary tight rope during the first leg in Stratford last week, fearing another booking would see him miss this Thursday's fixture, but according to UEFA rules, yellow cards that are outstanding are written off after the quarter final.

The vultures are circling, looking at what they consider to be lesser teams to see what talent they can prise away. Once the season ends, the noise around West Ham's most talented players is likely to become unbearable as the lack of football to report on inevitably results in endless transfer speculation and rumours. Rather than lament the state of football journalism or wallow in grief at the potential loss of Rice or Bowen, let's see what clubs have done in the past to hold on to their most talented and in-demand players.