West Ham have made it clear to Claret and Hugh the club is no hurry to appoint a new skipper.
West Ham in no hurry
We opened the topic on here and the number of candidates mentioned across the forums demonstrated that there is no outstanding candidate to follow in the footsteps if Declan Rice.
Aaron Cresswell, Tomas Soucek, Thilo Kehrer. Jarrod Bowen and a number of others including Kurt Zouma and Nayef Aguerd had their backers but the club appears to suggest that the new man could come in from outside during the window.
West Ham may buy new skipper
That would follow the model laid down when Sam Allardyce brought in Kevin Nolan – now of course a member of the David Moyes backroom team.
However, at this stage the Hammers and Moyes in particular are keeping all their options open with a senior source at the club making the position clear.
He told us: “Its still very early in the window. Clubs want to move players before they buy. We are in no rush in buying and selling or appointing a skipper.”
ONE OF THE PROBLEMS WE HAVE, IS THAT RICE HAS STATED A PREFERENCE FOR ARSENAL, SO THEY CAN NOW OFFER A LOWER FEE TO SIGN HIM, KNOWING THAT HE MIGHT TURN DOWN HIGHER BIDDERS. THIS COULD BE A PROBLEM FOR US, AS ARSENAL CAN WAIT, BUT WE NEED CASH TO BUY REPLACEMENTS EARLY, TO SAVE US MISSING OUR TARGETS, AS HAS HAPPENED IN THE PAST WITH OUR DITHERING.