Chez

Do you have the inside track here SG? I am not sure what difference it makes that Macca accepted a contract. Can you clarify? Forster was also offered a contract. He turned it down. If he wants to be here, then why not sign the contract? Does he want more money or is there something else?

yes leave on a free = out of contract in my mind. Forster is gone. Whether it was the requested wage cut, us farming him out on loan, or the possibility of a nice move to a bigger side, I don't know the reason he didn't want to sign the new deal, but whatever we lose £100k off our wage bill, and we need to use some of those fund to bring in quality. I expect it to be Johnstone, but I really don't know if that's an upgrade.

...give me Bowen, Antonio AND Broja every day. Liverpool are often linked with Bowen. Not sure that move will happen, but wise to have options. He has played out wide a lot too and been very effective, so makes sense to have another striker and allow him to play there with or without Antonio. I love Antonio. Him tearing Leyton Orient to shreds at Brisbane Road will live with me forever. We should have just paid the £500,000 Reading wanted, assuming that story was true. Antonio started like a train this season, but he only has 8 goals. He's had injuries issues too, so West Ham could do with another striker.

Yep. I'd guess that is exactly what happens, but the fact we didn't sign anyone from Germany really surprises me. Perhaps he had a few in mind, but we just couldn't get those.

if a manager doesn't he should be sacked.

Sure, but they train for about two hours a day and not every day either. Often the coaches take the sessions. There is media work too and lots of other stuff no doubt, but some of these managers like Pep are reported to work 10 or 12 hours a day, six of seven days a week. I mean that's not 24/7, but if you are not involved in scouting, player contracts, logistics, admin, operations, finances....

Scottish Sun reported last summer that Forster rejected our contract offer. Strange story to print unless true.

From BBC gossip page, the Sun links west ham with Broja.

Not sure I follow. I meant Forster and McCarthy. Obviously McCarthy isn't now leaving but Forster is. My question was, are those suggested keepers,Johnstone etc. better than what we currently have. I'm not so sure they are. I'd offer Caballero a new deal. Not seen anything of Lewis this season, so got nothing to rate him on.

Agreed, Villa have been heavily linked and the Gerrard connection would make them strong favourites. Maybe Napoli rate Bednerak much higher than we do? He's a Polish international, plenty of experience, a good age and OK with the ball. Maybe the price is right (they need to make profit on transfers this summer) and they may need to bring in a couple of CBs this summer.

I've been advocate for allowing both keepers to leave on frees, but is that actually an upgrade?

I wonder if he goes to any games or just watches videos. I wonder what manager does these days. They go on about working extremely long hours, but doing what? If they are not travelling to watch other teams and players, what fills the time.

I loved our Hummel kits first time round. The current home shirt is pretty poor IMO. I am hopeful for the second effort. There have been some nice Hummel shirts at other clubs and boy can these guys do keeper shirts:

this Brondby 2021 away kit?

not sure if these two Betis kits are genuine.

This is from 2019, but has the Air Florida design. Bold sponsorship deal that one...

while we are waiting, some other Hummel kits...

Apart from the fact swaps deals hardly ever happen, Blackburn won't be taking on Armstrong's Premiership size wages. They also could do with the money a Diaz sale might bring in, so may perhaps prefer the cash from that deal and then get a much cheaper replacement than Armstrong in.

If you are looking for a rod to beat the club with, maybe, but the other way of looking at it is we were smart enough to insist on paying in instalments based on appearances, which means if the player turns out to be shit and cant get in the side, the fee paid is lower. If this is true, and I don't have a clue one way of the other, it's possibly a good bit of business on our part as he hasn't set the world on fire, and as a result we've not needed to pay the full fee...yet.

I agree. We are not in desperate shit, as we were under Pellegrino and Hughes, but we aren't a million miles from it. It is his side, although I'm sure he'd want to have signed better players - they are his choices I assume. How much scouting he does I don't know. His failure to bring any gems with him (as Koeman did with Tadic and Pelle) was certainly disappointing and makes me wonder what he does on that side. Did he make good selections when he was at previous clubs? Again, its always hard to know how big an input the manager has these days with signings. If it was me, and buy and large you live and die by you signings, I'd want a massive say and would be going to watch players live.

Is it a lack of effort? Are players not trying? Do you see poor attitudes? When we lose a few, people immediately point to a lack of effort, poor fitness (less so these days), poor attitudes and the `dressing room has been lost'. I don't see those things personally. I see an average quality side, that needs to be firing on all cylinders for us to win any games in this league. Lose a player or two to injury, one or two low on confidence meaning they don't shoot on side or take that man on, the balance not right (between attack and defence), partnerships not working due to different selections, a side not quite functioning right, a few results going the wrong way leading to a side-wide dip in confidence and before you know it you are not creating chances, stopping goals and winning games. The manager can affect many of these things. So I am not saying Ralph isn't to blame, but I don't think its as simple as players have had enough of Ralph, so have down tools.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a Ralph apologist, but from an owners point of view, Premiership survival is not `in the doldrums'. It is likely `the target' and that target keeps being achieved. Obviously, like any other fan, I'd like to see us challenging for Europe and going toe to toe with the big sides, rather than hanging on for grim life, but as has been said by others, those seasons under Poch and Koeman are perhaps not the norm. I am not fearful of seeing if the grass is greener with a new manager. Managerial change is inevitable at some point, but I do wonder, if, like under Puel, the tactics are helping masquerade a lack of quality (especially in the final third) or are simply holding us back.