West Ham will be playing a ‘long game’ on Winston Reid’s new contract.

Until now the central defender and his negotiating team appear to have been keeping the club on the back foot, resisting the temptation to sign a reported new £60k a week deal.

Now ClaretandHugh can reveal for the first time that senior sources inside the club have made up their minds to assess the player’s form over the several games before getting into more talks.

Winston certainly hasn’t been in the sort of form that the Irons fans have become used to over recent seasons and was on the wrong end of a  3-1 defeat to Uzbekistan this week.

We have been told that “it makes sense” given the circumstances to take a close look at the players form given the state of negotiations.

And it was explained: We have made a top offer – it’s up to Winston and his people now.”