Couldn't think - June 2025 onwards

MrsGrey

There are a gazillion players we haven't signed.

Sorry - not sure what you are trying to say with that comment.

A player who isn't a West Ham player scored for his current club.

I think there are lots of players who can tick that box.

thornburyiron

There is indeed a lot who tick that box and some of them join us and tick the can’t score for us box too.

Fortuneseeker

I think gazillion is a tad of an exaggeration MrsG 😄.

MrsGrey

What can I say? I'm a drama queen!

BubblesNeverDies

Fortuneseeker said:

That’s understandable MrsG 👍.
Igor Jesus another striker that we didn’t sign when strongly rumoured to have been interested in doing so.

Should have been all over him, he scored 2 for Forest last night.
Why do we never find these players - Bowen being the exception of course.

Fortuneseeker

BND, I think it's more a case of we can find them but we don't actually sign them.

alderz

I don’t know if anyone’s into podcasts, but there’s a very good* West Ham episode of The Ripple Effect with James Alcott that came out yesterday.

*or at least, I’ve enjoyed it.

ASLEFshrugged

You've got to feel sorry for the Forest fans, they had a wonderful season, they're back in Europe for the first time in 29 years but Nuno has been replaced with Ange and they haven't won since the opening day

We were linked with Igor Jesus back in November by a Brazilian website which reckoned we'd offered Botafogo £30m plus £4m add ons although as Forest only paid £10m-£17m it seems highly unlikely we offered that much or made any offer at all

How good can he be? Came on in the 72rd minute against us, only managed 5 touches, didn't win a header and not a single shot

BubblesNeverDies

One for Buffy and Herb. Watch it on YouTube and read the first few comments.



Possibly one of the most moving songs ever written in the English language.

buffybegood

Thanks for sharing, I must admit I don't remember ever hearing it before, but it's a lovely piece.

BubblesNeverDies

Buffy, you can find a version with the lyrics. Well worth it as the audio can be a bit muffled.

buffybegood

Congrats to England's women for winning their Rugby World Cup.

ValiantIron

buffybegood said:

Congrats to England's women for winning their Rugby World Cup.

Agreed. They were favourites, but I find supporting the favourites through a tournament to be a strangely scary experience. Things can only really go wrong. Admittedly not an experience we have too often around here!

OutcastLondoner

Have just read something that could very well be nonsense about Nuno immediately telling JWP he has no chance and it got me thinking about this whole thing of "bomb squads" that seems so common now. I've been critical of JWP for a long time, even under Moyes, but the idea that he or any other player would be completely ruled out seems to make no sense. It used to be something reserved for particularly disruptive players but now is becoming pretty common. It's fine to drop a player but how can you be so sure that they won't respond to that and prove they can offer something in the future, especially in an injury crisis?

alderz

I also am not a fan of it, but like you say it’s commonplace now so you’d assume there’s some benefit from it that the managers see.

EXETERHAMMER

Seems harsh. He is on £100,000 plus bonuses to £140,000 a week.

He certainly isn't worth that the way he is playing.

claretandbluesky

There is nothing wrong with being straight forward as long as it is done respectfully. I also don't feel JWP has a future with us as i think he slows the game down and as Nuno is a counter attacker at heart it is understandable they don't suit each other.

What is clear is that JWP is a somewhat rare personality in the football world in as much as he is considered, articulate and composed. He deserves treating accordingly.

I also think he can do a great job for someone in the Championship, he could make the difference to promotion and play offs for the right club just as Flynn Downes did when going to his old club Southampton.

chicagohammer

Agreed, I think that the difference we saw against Everton is that we moved the ball through midfield fairly quickly, JWP just does not do that and frankly, I would also be reluctant to allow Soucek, for all he offers… to get straight back in the first eleven for the same reason

thornburyiron

Outcast I don’t think it was as harsh as “you’ve got no chance” but more along the lines of a one to one chat where he told him he doesn’t currently fit into his plans for the way he wants to play.
Amounts to the same result but as he told him that when he was on loan at Forest it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise.

Fortuneseeker

This reminds me of the situation with the Scottish manager & Javier Hernandez. He was pushed out at Old Trafford & was dispatched from us as soon as possible after he took over here.

steve

Might as well send him down to saints now to train will end up back there come Jan

alderz

Fortuneseeker said:

This reminds me of the situation with the Scottish manager & Javier Hernandez. He was pushed out at Old Trafford & was dispatched from us as soon as possible after he took over here.

Which Scottish manager?

OutcastLondoner

thornburyiron said:

Outcast I don’t think it was as harsh as “you’ve got no chance” but more along the lines of a one to one chat where he told him he doesn’t currently fit into his plans for the way he wants to play.
Amounts to the same result but as he told him that when he was on loan at Forest it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise.

Yes it might have not been so harsh in this case but I was thinking about the trend in particular. For example, Sterling at Chelsea. I’ve seen no suggestion that he has any bad influence, simply that he hasn’t accepted some of the transfer offers that Chelsea wanted to take. So they freeze him out entirely? I think it’s fair to say you’re not in the plans but not to isolate the player completely.

With JWP, I’ve been critical of him since Moyes was in charge for his role, I felt, in slowing down our build up. I’m quite happy to not see him starting but hope that doesn’t mean he has no chance of playing until he’s sold.

Fortuneseeker

alderz said:

Fortuneseeker said:

This reminds me of the situation with the Scottish manager & Javier Hernandez. He was pushed out at Old Trafford & was dispatched from us as soon as possible after he took over here.

Which Scottish manager?

The Moyesiah!

IronHerb

But Nuno said in interview that he picks squads on a per match basis so the next one could be quite different to the Everton one.

ASLEFshrugged

steve said:

Might as well send him down to saints now to train will end up back there come Jan

Quite a few Saints fans are highly sceptical about talk of JWP returning

He left because he didn't want to play in the Championship so it's unlikely he'd want to play there two years later and unless he's willing to take a massive pay cut they simply couldn't afford his wages

If he does go it will either be to another Premier League club or overseas. Saudi?

buffybegood

Let's face it, he'll be another Ings who just sees out his very expensive contract whilst contributing very little, just another example of exactly the wrong type of purchase (this one's on Moyes).

claretandbluesky

buffybegood said:

Let's face it, he'll be another Ings who just sees out his very expensive contract whilst contributing very little, just another example of exactly the wrong type of purchase (this one's on Moyes).

Whilst I think that is a fair assessment at where we stand at present I can also see why he was brought in on the Declan dollars, we needed a proven dependable midfielder, ideally with Premier league experience, and on paper he was a reasonable choice, but sadly he has been underwhelming.

buffybegood

claretandbluesky said:

Whilst I think that is a fair assessment at where we stand at present I can also see why he was brought in on the Declan dollars, we needed a proven dependable midfielder, ideally with Premier league experience, and on paper he was a reasonable choice, but sadly he has been underwhelming.

He was never the right profile, was never a reasonable choice imo, and certainly not for what we paid or the wages we agreed.

Fortuneseeker

IF the rumours that DM went for JWP over Fofana of Monaco then it was a very poor decision IMO.