A radio shock jock who has spent his career winding up West Ham fans told his TalkSport listeners that the Hammers can make the top four if they keep their best players in Declan Rice, Issa Diop and Felipe Anderson. The talkSPORT drive host suggests that if the Hammers stand their ground, they could finish above ManchesterUnited next season – and potentially even qualify for the Champions League.
He said “I’m fascinated to see what happens next season. West Ham won 15 of their 38 games, I expect them to win more than that.
“They got 52 points last season, top four was 71. It’s a huge amount of points they’ve got to makeup, I get that.
“I think [they can do it], with a super-human effort, if they keep [Declan] Rice, [Issa] Diop and [Felipe] Anderson.”
Durham added that a fully-fit Jack Wilshere could transform the Hammers into an elite Premier League force.
“If he stays fit, and it’s a big if, we all know what he can do and we all know how talented he is. He could he be the difference between finishing eighth or ninth or actually pushing for the top four?”
Claret and Hugh say:
It is hard to take Adrian Durham seriously after years of abuse, he loves winding up West Ham fans for them to ring in and argue with it so his latest outburst is a complete change in tact in suggesting that the Hammers could be a force in the Premier League. There is no doubt Manuel Pellegrini has ambition, determination and experience to take West Ham into the top six but doing it in his second season in charge will be a tough challenge. The gulf between the current top six and the other is massive in terms of finances and talent and they all fight hard to keep it that way. It takes one or more of them to drop the ball one season like they did the season Leicester City won the Premier League when West Ham finished one point off the top six and above Liverpool. Those opportunities don’t come along too often but as well as keeping our best players and signing a quality forward we would also need to stay virtually injury free all season to having the remotest of changes for a top-four place.
Durham tries to wind everyone up. I don’t think he gives West Ham special attention. If we can sign a proven goal scorer maybe we can make top four.
Yeh this is from the same bloke who once said brighton are a bigger club than us …..but hey we can still dream …..coyi
There’s a big difference between being an optimist and a realist.I’m in the latter camp.
To be in the top four or even the top six you have to be consistent week in week out and i’m afraid except for 1986 we have never been like that.
I hope i get proved wrong?
If anyone has ever heard durham on talksport you know you cannot take anything he says seriously.
We wont make top 4 arsenal and man united have been poor as they have been over the last 5 year’s and weve only got close when we had payet… and for somr reason the board didnt back bilic
He doesn’t think we can get in the top four. Probably he is just hoping we will sell one or more of those players. Then he will really enjoy reminding everybody that he had predicted we were capable of the top four but, guess what, the Hammers messed it all up as usual- pathetic. But Tony has it right. He spouts the same rubbish to everybody. Best ignored.
Although it’s a sensationalist comment the reasoning behind it that someone could well nick 4th place behind City, Liverpool and the Spuds is probably correct. Chelsea will be an unknown without Hazard, Arsenal their front two aside are vulnerable, Utd with Solskjaer are bang average. Imho if we add quality finishers we can finish top 7 the more we transitioned the better we looked, although this is effectively a second season for us so some teams will have worked out ways to negate our attacking possession based game based on last years experience but we have three new players in Yarmolenko, Wilshere and Fornals that most will not have seen playing in our system so hopefully we should be a lot more creative, the weakness defensively at left back is still an open wound imho so if we could find a quality left back alternative that would help and our cup offering with a new keeper remains to be seen doesn’t it ?