Neil McDonald claims that whichever players Sam Allardyce picks , West Ham are going to be a good team this season.
And he reckons this is the best squad he and the manager have had since arriving.
Macca has been hogging his own headlines with a series of interviews these last few days and discussing the squad he beamed: “In the third year your team should be a lot stronger and I think that is proving to be right at the moment.
“We have great competition for places. Whoever the manager picks, it is going to be a good team and if a player gets in, he will keep his place if he is playing well.”
Competition for places creates its own problems with Macca saying: “Everyone has to play well and consistently to keep hold of the shirt.
“If they don’t, it is not a question of them thinking a young kid is not going to take their place, behind them are experienced professionals.
“Mark Noble has dropped out because he has a calf injury and Alex Song has come in and Mark must be thinking ‘am I going to get my position back?’
“Cheikhou Kouyate took the place by storm when he first came, now he has dropped out through injury, is he going to get his place back?
“It is a fantastic situation to be in. It does create problems in trying to keep everybody happy. That is a situation we have dealt with in the past wherever me and Sam have been.
“It is a lovely problem to have rather than last season when we struggled because we didn’t have enough players.”
You’d hope that Noble and Kouyate coming back would push Nolan further down the pecking order – don’t hold your breath though!
As Mac does all the real work what does Allardyce actually do for £3m a year.
If either Noble/Kouyate lose their spots to Nolan then we will know that something is certainly rotten at Upton Park.