Palace troubles may give Hammers an edge
Ok, they played well enough at the Emirates on Saturday and may have been a tad unlucky to come away as 2-1 losers at the same time as we were being beaten by the other north Londoners.
However, events this week – and notably over the last 24 hours – really have seen things turn dramatically for the worse at Selhurst Park.
With Tony Pulis having parted company with the club, it seemed they were all set to appoint Malky Mackay manager – ironic given the length of time he has been associated as a front runner to take over from Sam Allardyce at our place.
However, his appointment to the Palace job is now very much in doubt it seems amid allegations that he may be involved in a probe over homophobic, racists and sexist texts.
The dossier was delivered to the FA – according to reports – by Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan.
Reports also claim investigators discovered thousands of texts and e-mails which included the offensive messages given the the FA by Cardiff’s lawyers.
Two letters sent to the FA detail offensive exchanges which attack a Jewish agent, a gay official at another club as well as black and foreign players.
Mackay’s director of football Ian Moody is understood to have been subjected to a raid at his south London home as part of the Bluebirds examination of transfer dealings at the Welsh club.
All of this has created a huge air of uncertainty around the club which may well sit in the player’s psyches ahead of the match with the Irons.
ClaretandHugh learned several weeks ago that Mackay was not a runner should Sam Allardyce be sacked and it now seems that the Palace job is a goner for his purposes.
A Hammers source said: “It’s not really a matter for us to comment on but anything that gives us an edge on the pitch is welcome!”