Among the horse riding fraternity there is a golden rule, if you fall off your horse, the first thing you do after having dusted yourself off is to get straight back on again, thus wiping out any fear you have of remounting while teaching the horse who is boss once and for all.
Hot on the heals of the Haller 'loss bombshell' incurred by the striker's move to Ajax, word has reached us from a disgruntled member of staff that the 'deal' wasn't quite as straight forward as it first seems. The world and his brother have 'lumped on' about the huge financial loss, including ourselves, however it now transpires that West Ham insisted on a 'massive' sell on clause, rumoured to be 20% but it could possibly be as much as 25%, in order to sanction the deal.
Half Price Horror Sale!
Pellegrini Signed Us For Over £100 Million, We Are Worth Less Than Half Now
Without a pot to proverbially fill, David Moyes embarks on his January transfer window with some amount of trepidation, he knows he has to sell to buy, his problem is who to sell, and equally as important, who would want to buy them? There are a number of players whose contracts expire at the end of the season, thus rendering them financially valueless once the window has closed, the club has to either extend their contracts or sell them on while their sales can still generate funds, albeit in a limited capacity.
OK, so the last name was a bit of a red herring, but Carlton Cole who works with the academy as a mentor for the youngsters is still only 37 years old, mooted Hammers striker targets for this window are Graziano Pellè age 35, Olivier Giroud age 34 and Diego Costa at the sprightly age of 32.
Having just steered his team through the incredibly challenging Christmas and New Year fixtures, culminating in the playing of three games in six days that yielded five points, David Moyes and his West Ham medical team now have the 'luxury' of seven whole days to refresh the squad, attend to 'niggles' and generally recharge the batteries.
It has taken him 11 years, but David Moyes finally buried one of his 'ghosts' by beating his former club Everton in a dour but gritty win at Goodison which proved even to the most negative of Hammers fans that he is starting to 'build' something special. Moyes' achievement is even more special given the severe restrictions he has had to work under, Covid-19, no money, big mouth owners, and an imbalanced disparate and desperate squad.
Everton: Pickford, Holgate, Mina, Coleman, Godfrey, Doucoure, Davies, Bernard, Sigurdsson, Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin Subs: Olsen, Lossl, Keane, Tosun, Nkounkou, Rodriguez, Gomes, Gordon, Branthwaite.
West Ham: Fabiański, Coufal, Dawson, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Rice, Souček, Bowen, Benrahma, Fornals, Haller Subs: Randolph (GK), Johnson, Balbuena, Diop, Noble, Snodgrass, Lanzini, Yarmolenko, Antonio
As David Moyes prepares his team to face the last of the Christmas/New Year fixtures he reflected on how things have gone so far this season, and how he hopes for a continuation of what has been a very bright start despite only picking up 3 points in the last four games recently.
When it comes to supporting West Ham, it can be considered a somewhat tumultuous task and with an uneasy relationship between fans and the board acting as an interesting sub-plot off the pitch, such friction has a habit of affecting what happens on the playing field.