Working in London does at times feels like it drags a little bit with the exorbitant costs of virtually everything, the endless tube journeys, bus rides sat in hectic yet stationary traffic, and living in a city together with such a sheer mass of people despite its numerous beautiful green parks and nature reserves.
Most Hammers fans view media 'observations' like "a snip at £24 Million" with a certain degree of sardonic humour, during the Pellegrini era such sums seemed a mere Bagatelle for him and his brown envelope loving head of recruitment Husillos. Unfortunately the club is now in the middle of paying for those excesses and questionable fees incurred during their profligacy, at the worst possible time due to the fiscal fall out from the Covid Pandemic.
Pin the Donkey, or more correctly Pin the Tail On The Donkey, was a game played by generations of kids in gentler times, when there were no mobile phones, computers nor the dreaded 'soshul' media! The game involved being blind folded, spun around and then released with pin in hand to stick it in the target, which was a Donkey's 'Arse'nal!
The dialogue associated with footie transfers is unique but short on originality, hence the transfer window 'slamming shut' in 11 days time instead of just being closed. Players are regularly 'linked to West Ham', about every striker with a pulse has been linked with West Ham of late and finally the big IF or BUT(T).
Lyon have joined all the other teams in Ligue 1, except PSG, in preparing a fire sale of nearly half their first team squad, 18-year-old attacker Rayan Cherki and former Leicester City striker Islam Slimani are both to be made available for transfer as Lyon desperately try to balance their books by starting their sale ahead of what could well become a glut of clubs wishing to hawk their wares to the 'rich' clubs in England.
Without wishing to put the commentator's curse on proceedings, Premier League clubs will be excited by the prospect of signing Ligue 1 players as a result of the continuing impact of the failed TV deal, but will have to act quickly. One player who became available due to 'Frogate' was Stade de Reims’ Boulaye Dia, unfortunately Villarreal CF snapped him up, which has however meant that Luuk de Jong has fallen down the pecking order and has 'expressed an interest' in leaving the Europa League winners.
One by one Hammers transfer targets seem to be slipping through the club's hands as the transfer window enters it's last 11 days, but just like the limbs of lizards, geckos and iguanas, rumours about transfer targets simply grow again as soon as the old ones die!
There have been so many players supposedly on Hammers radar that fans must be feeling like air traffic controllers, as they sieve through endless drivel about targets 'linked' with the club. Interesting expression 'linked', it can be used ubiquitously in order to mask a multitude of nefarious information, it usually preceeds this well known phrase which is taken from the West Ham hierarchy's coat of arms "Habent, habere possent, ut".
It is pretty obvious to most fans that Hammers transfer business, if any, is going to be conducted on or around the last day of the transfer window. It really will be a 'last turkey in the shop' situation, except this is the summer window, but the jeopardy remains the same.
Tottingham or at least their agents, phone tappers included, seem to know an awful lot about Hammers transfer targets. Perhaps the Hierarchy at the London Bowl should organise a security sweep for hidden devices, after all it's not unheard of for a bit of 'sneak listening to be sanctioned by certain parties is it?