The potential transfer of Declan Rice from West Ham has become something of a media circus that shows no sign of abating and quite frankly it is all getting a bit boring! Many years ago TV viewers did not have a thousand and one channels and box sets to choose from, they only had three!
João Palhinha is a decent midfielder and the 27 year old quickly established himself as a key part of Marco Silva's side that finished comfortably in the top half of the table, above West Ham.
The Portuguese international made 40 appearances in all competitions for Fulham in his debut season at the club, during which he completed an impressive 147 tackles.
Hammers start the 2023/4 domestic season with an away fixture against Bournemouth followed by the club's first home fixture of the new season against Chelsea. In recent seasons West Ham have had incredibly 'challenging' fixtures for their first five games, so this season's fixture list comes as something of a relief.
You can bet that the supporters of a couple of London's Premier League clubs will be looking in on West Ham's recent success with more than a green tinge of envy, Tottingham just scraped through to the Conference League Cup, a competiton which was previously much derided by their fans and Chelsea didn't even make Europe!
The domestic transfer window doesn't even open until the 14th of June and the window for the rest of Europe not until Saturday the 1st of July, but that hasn't stopped frenzied 'click baiting' on an industrial scale occurring.
From vast amounts of media reports and 'insider' information, if you had believed all you see and hear Hammers captain Declan Rice would have been sold five times over to three different clubs!
Playing The Field
West Ham and Fiorentina have BOTH been charged by UEFA with the "throwing of objects" in relation to incidents at Wednesday's Europa Conference League final. Hammers have additionally been charged for its fans' "invasion of the field of play", while La Viola have also been charged with "lighting of fireworks" by UEFA who say the matter will be decided in due course.
The sinking of the Titanic was brilliantly made into a black and white movie entitled 'a night to remember' in which the band played on as the ship was slipped in to the sea, the musicians knew they had no hope of survival because of the lack of life boats but they played on until the bitter end.
They came, they saw, they conquered! That was just the Press! Apart form a disgraceful act of stupidity which involved a deranged fan hurling a vape at one of tonight's opponents, Hammers fans bathed themselves in glory by ingratiating themselves with the locals in Prague and creating a carnival atmosphere as they took over the town!
West Ham: Areola, Coufal, Zouma, Aguerd, Emerson, Souček, Rice ©, Paquetá, Bowen, Benrahma, Antonio Subs: Fabiański (GK), Johnson, Kehrer, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Downes, Lanzini, Potts, Cornet, Fornals, Mubama, Ings
Fiorentina: Terracciano, Dodô, Milenković, Ranieri, Biraghi ©, Bonaventura, Amrabat, Mandragora, González, Kouamé, Jović Subs: Cerofolini (GK), Saponara, Cabral, Ikoné, Terzić, Venuti, Quarta, Duncan, Bianco, Barák, Brekalo, Igor
Returning to the City where they began their professional careers is something Big Tomy Soucek and Vladimir 'The Impaler' Coufal would do on a regular basis during the off season for the last couple of years, apart from being away representing the Czech Republic at International level.