Middlesborough’s fading Championship promotion challenge is bad news for the Hammers who were hoping that on-loan Jordan Hugill could find a permanent home at the Riverside.
Boro have now collected 58 points this season but despite remaining in the play off places in fifth place have lost their last three games and are just a point in front of Villa and Preston and two ahead of Frank Lamprd’s Derby County.
Hugill with seven goals from 35 appearances has been involved in the last four games from which Boro have taken just one point.
And we understand that at this point manager Tony Pulis has no intention of keeping the former Preston striker – who cost the Hammers £10 million under David Moyes.
However, the Irons are hoping that after making 32 appearances for Fiorentina, the Serie A outfit take up the option they hold on Edmilson Fernandes who is available to them at a pre-arranged option fee of £7 million
OMG how things get so complicated .. loads & loads of speculation whilst we are still trying to make the most of this season . We have the basis of an excellent squad for next season .
I know 7th would be a great position to finish the season , but are we ready to play in Europa League Cup qualifiers?? , personally , I don’t think so . Although I would love to see us mixing it in Europe I think it’s better , in retrospect , to first build a squad that could handle such a challenge . We have seen our own club suffer and also other clubs suffer due to the extra challenges of pre-season games which we or others were not capable of meeting . It’s nice to wave the Flag but reality is a merciless enemy .
Job one is controlling our forever injury list crisis . And of course the never ending mentality issues . Top Five or Six next season should be our target ,, and then let’s see .
COYHAMMERS