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Manchester United's narrow Emirates FA Cup victory in extra time over Crystal Palace has opened the door for West Ham United to enter the Europa League, thus ensuring some kind of European football for the inaugural season at the Olympic Stadium. Hammers will enter the Europa League at the same stage as they were knocked out this season, victory over Stoke City on the last day of the season would have meant going straight in to the group stage, instead of having to play in the third qualifying round.

Printing false or spurious information seems to be the bye word for those working at News International's Sun newspaper, what initially looked like lazy journalism is actually a rather unpleasant occurrence of 'media led' player destabilisation. The Sun's report claims 17 year old Reece Oxford, Slaven Billic's favourite young player, wants £40,000 per week in wages and a 'signing on' fee of £1 Million! Wait a minute, a 'signing on' fee for a player who is already signed up? Confused, you should be, as is Oxford himself.

It is rather typically West Ham United that the club's European competition qualification rests out of their hands, those who woke up today thinking that Southampton couldn't possibly have pipped Hammers to the final Europa Cup berth yesterday will begin having to accept the fact that Manchester United and Crystal palace will dictate whether European football comes to the inaugural season at the 60,000 seat Olympic Stadium.