Midfielder returns for pre-season training: But for how long?

Today marked the start of pre-season, 45 days after the last game of the 23-4 campaign against Manchester City. Some great images of new signings Luis Guilherme and Wes Foderingham along with news of lesser publicised loanee Andy Irving who returned from his own loan at S K Austria Klagenfurt also attending for the first time.

Also returning from a successful loan spell with Southampton was Flynn Downes, who helped the Saints to promotion via the Wembley Play-off. The midfielder – who in my opinion didn’t get a massive run in the West Ham team under the previous manager- could yet become an important component of our squad this season. He had limited opportunities for the first team but looked to be alert and snap into tackles when he played for us. Of course -like Alvarez – he’d a bit of a reputation for picking up yellow cards: I’d be interested to hear other opinions.

With Edson Alvarez looking at protracted lay off with a hamstring injury, let us hope that Lopetegui sees in Flynn Downes enough to keep him at the club, which could save us many millions in another transfer market foray to bolster the midfield. Difficult to be objective, as we all tend to have our ‘favourites’ and ultimately the Coach and Director of Football get to make the hard calls.

Downes has been linked to a full – time transfer to Southampton which would certainly be Saints’ preferred option. However, rumours already discussed by C and H suggest Downes maybe heading off down the M3 to Southampton with Kyle Walker Peters heading to the London Stadium as part of a cash plus player deal.

One of a handful of negotiations underway at present: I’d like to be a fly on the wall just now to see how these negotiations progress. Difficult, too, to be patient and await news. I wonder how hard it is as a player to remain focussed and train with a group who you might be leaving any day.