West Ham transfer news

I BET West Ham fans who want to see the back of David Moyes are sick of hearing the phrase: ‘Be careful what you wish for’.But if the Hammers do part ways with one of the most successful managers in their history when his contract expires this summer, then they are going to have to spend at least £200million to overhaul their squad.
Some of the West Ham faithful are starting to turn on manager David MoyesCredit: REX
Calls to sack the Scot grew after the Hammers were thumped 6-0 b Arsenal last weekendCredit: REX
The West Ham board face a tricky decision over the potential second axing of MoyesCredit: REUTERS
Moyes often says West Ham fans have never had it this good over a three or four-year period — and he is right.
Under the Scots, they have finished sixth and seventh in the Premier League, won a European trophy, reached another European semi-final and are through to the last 16 of this season’s Europa League, while still in the top half of the table.
What more do Hammers fans realistically want?
Well, what they want is a more expansive, entertaining possession-based style.
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And the problem for the elder statesmen of management, including Moyes, is that supporters see plenty of English clubs with new-school coaches preaching a more watchable brand of football.
They can also see managers who have a greater connection with their players and supporters, by being more animated on the touchline.
Your average football fan is a lot more educated than ten or 20 years ago because of the amount of quality analysis there is about tactics and other aspects of the industry.
It is easier than ever for supporters to regard bosses like Moyes — an excellent coach with an impressive CV — as cautious, negative and outdated.
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Troy Deeney has warned West Hams to be careful what they wish for over the potential axing of David MoyesCredit: PA
If his teams are winning, supporters are happy. Look at the  Christmas  period when West Ham beat Manchester United and Arsenal in back-to-back matches.
But the problem with Moyes’ style of football is that, when his team isn’t winning, it looks terrible.
Watch awkward moment David Moyes ‘has a go’ at reporter as West Ham boss bristles at question about Jarrod Bowen
Never more so than West Ham’s 6-0 hiding at home to Arsenal last Sunday, prompting half of the London Stadium to empty by half-time.
West Ham have not won any of their seven games this year, so I understand why fans don’t want to hear all that ‘careful what you wish for’ talk.
But if the club’s owners — who tend to be a lot more patient than most — decide to make a change this summer, then they are going to have to commit to a complete overhaul of the playing staff or risk being dragged back into the relegation picture.
Because the current West Ham squad — while experienced and successful under Moyes — simply is not suited to playing expansive football.
Go through the squad and see how many players would be wanted by the ‘Big Six’. Probably only Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus, and they might only be squad players at an elite club.
Against Arsenal, West Ham looked horribly confused, which is not like a Moyes team.
With the ball, there didn’t appear to be any sort of plan — we were seeing Kurt Zouma lumping the ball into the corner, for instance.
And without the ball, they did not press properly and simply could not cope with Arsenal.
David Moyes guided West Ham to Europa Conference League glory last seasonCredit: PA
When a top-flight team gets an absolute drubbing, it is always primarily to do with a lack of application.
I can safely predict that Moyes’ men will be self-motivated to make amends when they visit Nottingham Forest today. As a player, you can lose a game narrowly and blame bad luck, the manager or certain team-mates.
But when you take a drubbing, you are always embarrassed, you are forced to take a long, hard look at yourself.
West Ham’s players will have trained with 100 per cent intensity this week.
Moyes won’t have over-analysed the Arsenal game with them. With a defeat as bad as that, it’s only really worth picking out a few smaller details to specifically improve things at Forest.
Those players will know they have to increase their application levels significantly to avoid going under at the City Ground.
Despite seeing thousands of punters pouring out of the London Stadium at half-time last week, there is no point moaning about the ground any more.
It is almost eight years since the Hammers left Upton Park — I remember as I am the last man ever to have missed a penalty at their old home!
As a visiting player you could feel the atmosphere and hostility at Upton Park, whereas at the London Stadium you feel far more comfortable.
But that’s gone, West Ham made a bold leap into a bigger modern ground — which is by no means perfect for football but which allows them to dream bigger in the long-term.
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Now the owners must decide whether to make another bold move by parting with Moyes.
But if they want to be as successful under another manager as they have been with him, then it will cost serious money. More

DID you see those aerial TV shots as thousands of West Ham fans left  the London Stadium before half-time with their side 4-0 down to Arsenal?Were they ungrateful? Disloyal? Fair-weather fans?
West Ham fans left in number as they were getting battered by Arsenal
Nothing leaves a more powerful message than empty seatsCredit: Rex
No, not a bit of it. They were heroes — every man, woman and child.
Paying to watch a match then leaving to avoid the traffic when the outcome is in the balance, as some always do, is utterly baffling.
But when your team are guilty of a thoroughly abysmal performance, there is nothing more liberating for a football supporter than to think, “I’ve had enough of this rabble, I’ve got better things to do with my life”, and simply hop it.
Had those fleeing Hammers fans forgotten the glory of winning a European trophy in Prague just last summer? No, but they spent good time and money to be there too.
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Yes, they could have stayed and booed the manager, the ownership or even Ben Johnson — the poor right-back who was having a stinker playing out of position on the left wing.
But elite sportsmen are show-offs. They thrive on adulation. The best of them usually thrive on hostility playing away from home too.
So nothing sends a more powerful message than leaving them performing in front of thousands of empty seats.
That’s the sting of humiliation right there. And if it does not provoke a significantly improved display from West Ham’s players at Nottingham Forest tomorrow then there is something seriously wrong.
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OK, so Arsenal once tossed away a 4-0 half-time lead at Newcastle. I was there that day and very few of the Toon Army left at the interval.
Had tens of thousands legged it, a miracle comeback may have been less likely. But that is one-in-a-million stuff.
West Ham fans react to 6-0 loss to Arsenal and whether David Moyes should stay or go
Leaving early, especially REALLY early, is the most powerful weapon in a supporter’s armoury.
Fans of the team dishing out the humiliation should never resort to mocking “Is this a fire drill?” chants.
They should applaud opposition fans in a show of solidarity instead.
Coincidentally, only the previous day my mate Dean and I were having a pint before watching our team Fulham — and reminiscing about the time we left after 37 minutes of a 5-0 home loss to Watford.
Our keeper had been sent off, the sub goalie came out wearing pyjama bottoms and then chucked in Watford’s third goal. It was a Friday night, it was freezing and it was Dean’s birthday.
So, at that point, we said, ‘Sod this for a game of soldiers’, asked the steward to open the exit door and went to the pub — with hundreds more swiftly following us.
Almost a decade later, we are both season-ticket holders and have indoctrinated our sons to follow Fulham too.
But the night we left after 37 minutes still holds fond memories.Supporting a football club is an elaborate con job.
You invest far too much in watching, and worrying about, a bunch of blokes who would leave at the drop of a better offer and can’t possibly care as much about your club as you do, given that you suffer from an incurable devotion as blind as religious faith.
Clubs will prattle on about supporters being their “12th man” when they get behind the team.
So why can’t we take credit for giving our team a rocket up the backside by turning our backs on them?
Funnily enough, after that Watford debacle, Fulham won away at Leeds then stuffed Sheffield Wednesday 4-0 in the next home match.
I like to think that was all on us, leaving early.
Which is almost certainly b******ks but it makes me feel better about having fallen for such a hoax for the last 43 years — and for as long as I’ve got left.
All this reminds me of a conversation a few of us had with Franco Baldini, then No 2 to England manager Fabio Capello.
It was back when England were serial under-achievers at major tournaments, and we were discussing potential reasons. Baldini had a theory and he offered an anecdote.
He’d been at Villa Park the day Newcastle were relegated from the Premier League with a limp 1-0 loss on the final day, when a draw would have saved them.
Baldini recalled being staggered as away fans gave their players a heroic send-off after the final whistle in a display of phoney “defiance”.
If a big club had been relegated in Italy, argued Baldini, players would be pelted with rotten tomatoes, or met with a full-scale riot.
This kind of thing, Baldini offered, made English players soft. There weren’t enough consequences for failure.
Perhaps he was right,  perhaps he was wrong.
But those West Ham supporters would have wanted to believe him, as they poured out of the London Stadium last Sunday.Heroes, one and all.
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SINCE VAR came in, decision-making has never been more confusing, controversial or time-consuming.
So a respectful tip of the clown hat to those jokers on the International Football Association Board for making it even more confusing still by introducing a trial of blue cards to sin-bin players guilty of dissent or ‘cynical fouls’.
We look forward to VAR officials watching endless replays of a foul to decide whether it is clearly and obviously ‘reckless’ (yellow card),  ‘cynical’ (blue) or ‘violent’ (red).
Can cynicism ever be clear and obvious? Unless you happen to be a regular reader of this column.
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Jaden Philogene scored a wondergoal for HullCredit: Getty
IF you haven’t seen Jaden Philogene’s midweek goal for Hull, google it now.
He nutmegs his marker, leaves him on his backside, then executes a Rabona finish from a narrow angle.
A slight nick off a Rotherham man saw it go down as an own goal but it has since been credited to Philogene in a laudable show of common sense.
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CONGRATULATIONS to Ben Stokes on winning his 100th Test cap.
In the forty-odd years I’ve been watching, the Durham all-rounder has been possibly England’s greatest sportsman.
And since he took over the Test captaincy — several years after he should have done — Stokes has undoubtedly become the most innovative and influential sportsman I’ve ever known.
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Don’t be surprised to see Gareth Southgate linked to Man Utd if Dan Ashworth starts calling the shots at Old TraffordCredit: Getty Images – Getty
IF Dan Ashworth leaves Newcastle to become Manchester United’s sporting director, do not be surprised to hear Gareth Southgate seriously touted as a future manager at Old Trafford.
Erik ten Hag may survive if his team continue the recent revival but if the Dutchman does depart then Southgate, a former ally of Ashworth at the FA, will be in the conversation.
Many fans might consider Southgate beneath United —  yet no managerial appointment would make the club more attractive to elite English players than the most successful and popular Three Lions boss in half a century.
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RUBEN DIAS claims Manchester City are the team everyone loves to hate.

No mate, that is Liverpool.
Most people just shrug their shoulders at the inevitability of City winning things. More