West Ham sporting director Mark Noble was spotted schmoozing and entertaining new England manager Thomas Tuchel at the London Stadium on Monday night.
The former Chelsea and PSG boss was presumably at the game to assess Newcastle’s strong contingent of Three Lions candidates. However, there’s also a chance the German manager was keeping an eye on Jarrod Bowen and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
Yet, on a night when Bowen failed to shine and Obi-Wan Bissaka’s usual attacking threat was blunted as West Ham went into survival mode, there was one clear beneficiary.
One can only imagine what ‘Mr West Ham’ Noble was discussing with Tuchel when he was caught on Sky Sports’ cameras. But it’s safe to assume it wasn’t West Ham’s two shots on target in an otherwise forgettable game.
While England’s new boss likely travelled to East London expecting Bowen and AWB to be the standouts, he may have left with someone else on his radar.
£40m summer signing Max Kilman was outstanding against Newcastle, keeping the Premier League’s in-form striker, Alexander Isak, very quiet indeed. The big centre-back dominated on a night when most struggled, and his stats backed up his performance.
Kilman completed 46 of his 47 attempted passes, had a 100% success rate in defensive duels, made five interceptions, and—rather embarrassingly for his teammates—boasted the highest pass completion rate for forward passes into the opposition half.
Throw in a couple of clearances and three towering headers, and it’s easy to see why the Hammers defender might have caught Tuchel’s attention.
One has to feel for Bowen, who would have been fully aware of the England head coach’s presence. Finding himself out of position with no supply line would have been incredibly frustrating. At least he had his mate Mark Noble in the stands doing a bit of schmoozing on his behalf.