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Lukasz Fabianski is out of contract in the summer, as is Ryan Fredericks and Robert Snodgrass, Michail Antonio, Mark Noble and Fabian Balbuena! That's a fair few, some of whom you would expect to get 'instant' renewal, others not so. Realistically the price of signing a new top class keeper is well beyond the financial reaches of West Ham, so a new contract for a couple of years seems inevitable.

The Irons might have made a solid start to the Barclays Premier League season, but only a fool would say there isn't a need to look at defensive reinforcement in the January transfer window. With the opening of that less than a month away, we look at the names in the frame.

Number 5. Samuel Umtiti

Somewhere tucked away in Portugal's sunny Algarve there lies a little known private and exclusive 'Holiday Village, our Portugese writer Rodrigo Perreira takes up the story.

West Ham: Fabianski, Coufal, Balbuena, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Masuaku, Rice, Soucek, Bowen, Fornals, Haller. Subs: Randolph, Diop, Johnson, Noble, Snodgrass, Lanzini, Benrahma.
Man Utd: Henderson, Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Telles, McTominay, Pogba, Greenwood, Van de Beek, Martial, Cavani. Subs: Grant, Tuanzebe, Williams, Matic, Mata, Fernandes, Rashford.

This Saturday's Barclays Premier League fixture between West Ham and Man Utd will be the first to actually feature fans, albeit a microscopic 2,000 instead of the 60,000 the London Stadium is capable of holding. The visitors are on a fine run of form, as are their hosts, so it virtually inconceivable that the match will finish as a 0-0 draw.

Perhaps we at the Org are getting old, but when Jack 'I can drive my Range Rooney Up Other People's exhausts' Grealish did a 'Salaesque' pirouette almost half a second after having been tackled in order to 'earn' his team a free kick from which they eventually scored, opinions about Villa's star man varied from preening ballerina to a lot worse.

West Ham: Fabianski, Coufal, Balbuena, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Masuaku, Rice, Soucek, Bowen, Antonio, Fornals Subs: Randolph, Benrahma, Lanzini, Noble, Diop, Johnson, Haller
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Targett, Luiz, McGinn, Trezeguet, Hourihane, Grealish, Watkins Subs: Steer, Taylor, Traore, Nakamba, El Ghazi, Elmohamady, Ramsey

Suggestions West Ham United will return with a substantial bid for Burnley's James Tarkowski are wide of the mark, since a purported move to the London Stadium didn't materialse during the last transfer window, the England midfielders form has dropped off a cliff. In and out of one of the Barclays Premier League's relegation candidates team, ostensibly through 'niggles' picked up in training, Tarkowski's stock has plummeted.

The long awaited return of fans to stadiums has been confirmed, albeit with a severe caveat! Fans can return to matches in extremely limited numbers after lockdown 2:0 ends on December the 2nd. Arsenal will be the first Premier League team to welcome back fans for their Europa League tie with Rapid Vienna next Thursday while West Ham will be the first to have fans at a Barclays Premier League game when they entertain Manchester United on December the 5th.

The December list of televised games has just been released, and it appears those with an Amazon Prime membership will be quids in! Two of West Ham United's fixtures in December are being broadcast on Amazon Prime, which will come as a welcome relief to those who cannot stand the sound of Alan Smith's voice, and to a lesser extent the patronising tones of Glen Hoddle.