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This summer is set to be a big one for West Ham. Although the season started well in east London – there were even dreams of Champions League qualification over the winter period – a post-Christmas slide leaves the Irons very much in the midtable zone of the Premier League, which, although far from disappointing, is a state of affairs plagued by ‘what ifs?’

Sam Allardyce looks almost certain to go and a new manager with more razzmatazz is on the menu going into the club’s last season at Upton Park ahead of the Olympic Stadium move.

New signings will, however, be needed, and although some foreign imports are in favour among the fans, a look at a few bargains from the relegation zone could be wise.

With that in mind, here are FIVE stars set for the drop that West Ham could gamble on….

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Charlie Austin

By far the standout player in the relegation zone, Austin has been mightily impressive this season. In a poor ‘Super’ Hoops team, the 25-year-old has smashed 17 Premier League goals, which is a tally only bettered by Diego Costa, Harry Kane and Sergio Aguero. While the aforementioned trio ply their trade in the upper half, Austin has been making do alongside the likes of Bobby Zamora!

Reports have already suggested that the former Swindon Town man will be on the move in order to stay in the top tier, with a figure of around £10m needed. With only 43 goals, the Hammers have the second worst return in the top half of the table, so Austin could remedy a big issue.

Leroy Fer

Although he’s quickly becoming the ‘new Nigel Quashie’ following back-to-back relegations with two different sides, Fer is certainly not a poor player. In between dropping with Norwich and joining QPR’s cause, the midfielder played for the Netherlands at the World Cup, and even got on the scoresheet in Brazil.

If he can be kept interested and motivated, which have appeared to be issues, the 25-year-old is a very promising player, with his mix of athleticism and technical ability making him a fearsome prospect in the middle of the park. He could potentially replace loanee Alex Song.

Kieran Trippier

Although his 14 assists as Burnley romped to Championship promotion have not been replicated in the top tier, Trippier has still impressed, albeit in a more quiet way. The 24-year-old right-back has been restricted by the Clarets’ slightly more pragmatic approach this season, but he’s still averaged 1.9 tackles and 2.1 interceptions per game, which are very much on a par with his Championship exploits.

With Carl Jenkinson likely to return to Arsenal after a fairly impressive loan spell in east London, Trippier could be an ideal replacement, and is unlikely to command a major fee.

Robert Snodgrass

Hull are by far the most likely candidates to join QPR and Burnley in moving down to the Championship. Two points from safety with Spurs and Manchester United to play, it’s hard to see where any points, let alone the win they need. Are coming from.

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Although he’s missed the entirety of the season with a dislocated kneecap, Scotland international Snodgrass is a player who may be worth a gamble, with the wide midfielder having been impressive in the Premier League. Prior to joining the Tigers, the 27-year-old was Norwich’s standout performer as they slipped to relegation, with his dead-ball prowess and crossing ability major traits.

Andrew Robertson

Another Hull player worth consideration is Robertson. With Aaron Cresswell attracting attention, a new left-back may be needed at Upton Park, and the young Scot is certainly a worth successor. Not dissimilar to the Hammers’ current option, the ex-Dundee United defender is likely to move on should the KC Stadium be hosting Championship football.

Pacey and able to swing in a cross, the 21-year-old is, albeit a little underwhelming, a potential good buy from the relegation zone.

Manchester United have invited 15-year-old Lars Troense Langgaards over for a trial with one eye on signing the Danish defender.

The youngster was spotted by United scouts playing for Denmark’s Under-16 side at the Aegean Cup in Turkey this January and has also been watched by academy director Brian McClair.

He is currently on the books of Danish Superliga side AGF Aarhus where he plays for their Under-17s and will be accompanied to his trial by the club’s sporting director Brian Steen Nielsen.

“It’s clearly going to be a great learning experience that Lars can use in his further development,” said Nielsen.

“He has been developing rapidly since joining AGF, and is now being rewarded with this chance.”

Nielsen has been impressed by United’s handling of the situation from the time that he was made aware of their interest in the schoolboy, who signed a three-year youth contract with the club last year.

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“Right from the first contact Manchester United have acted very professionally. They have had several scouts and their academy director over to follow Lars and I had a meeting with them about the test training [period]. They have done a thorough job, and we have therefore said thanks for the invitation.”

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Pep Guardiola says they’ll need to be ‘perfect’ if they’re to pull it off. Fernandinho agrees. So do most football fans – those who don’t just don’t believe it’s possible at all.

If Manchester City are to overcome Liverpool on Tuesday evening, it will be a famous comeback worthy of being given pride of place in the history of the club. Pull it off, and it’ll be up there with 93:20 – it could be a defining moment not just in the club’s history, but for the very fabric of its identity. “We’ll fight til the end,” goes the chant – turning around a Champions League quarter-final from a deficit which has only been overcome twice in the competition’s history would lend another dimension to the song.

There are many and varied reasons to believe that this cannot be done. City’s sudden loss of form, the fact they’ve been conceding goals, and the fact that this is the first real mental test Guardiola’s Blues have suffered this season: all of that will give massive belief to Liverpool.

But when you lose the first leg of a Champions League knockout round 3-0, any reasons to believe you can’t go through are obvious. There are also plenty of reasons to believe that City can.

Here’s what the Blues have to do if they are to beat Liverpool and take their place in an unlikely Champions League semi-final.

Don’t panic

It sounds obvious, but the headless chicken look just won’t do it for City this week. There are times when throwing caution to the wind and playing as if there’s no tomorrow can be well-advised. This isn’t one of those times.

Fire in the belly is needed to come back from such a deficit, sure, but City will also need ice in the mind if they are to nick the three goals needed to take the tie to extra time and keep Liverpool out at the other end.

City have have already proven they can score five against Liverpool this season, though, and showed in the Premier League game at Anfield that scoring multiple goals in a short space of time is not beyond them either.

Play their normal game

To come back from such a deficit against a team who are on top form with such good players is a special situation for City, who will need to overcome the odds.

But of the 15 home games that City have played in the Premier League this season – that is, in their most normal games against fellow English sides – Guardiola’s side have won eight of them by a margin of three goals or greater. That includes a 5-0 victory over Liverpool in what was, admittedly, a game with a bit of an asterisk beside it.

City have been so dominant at times this season that we almost forget that the margins of victory have routinely passed the three-goal mark. This would be an historic comeback, make no mistake about that, but given how this season’s gone at the Etihad would it really be as big of a shock as it feels right now?

Adapt to circumstances

And yet, as good as City have been at times this season, that dominance in itself poses a problem which was visible at the end of the first leg at Anfield.

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Guardiola’s sides are adaptable. They are fluid and they are tactically astute. But what they’re bad at is diverging from their principles, even a little bit. Of course, such a clear idea of what they want to do is one of the many reasons they’ve been so good this season, but in the final few minutes, it became clear that Plan A wasn’t working and City simply carried on with their natural game regardless.

That’s not to say that they should have started lumping it into the box, but perhaps a more urgent approach was necessary. If the time comes on Tuesday night to play more direct, City should take it: remember, even Sergi Roberto’s winning goal for Barcelona against Paris Saint-Germain last season came from a hopeful Neymar ball over the top of the defence.

Their apparent challengers might not be ready to admit it just yet, but as widely suspected from the opening weeks of the season, Chelsea are this year’s Premier League champions.

The Blues boast a seven-point lead over second-place Arsenal, with one game in hand, and are now just four wins away from securing the prestigious guard of honour.

So the real question in the final weeks of the season isn’t who’ll take this year’s crown, who’ll make the top four or in what order – it’s who’s ready to challenge Chelsea next year, following a campaign in which they’ve held top spot for its entirety.

With Manchester City set for a few years of soul searching, logic suggests Arsenal and Manchester United will be the predominant competitors – two sides who’ve shown drastic improvements as the season’s dragged on.

Arsenal’s turning point was that 2- 0 victory at the Etihad in January, not only providing their first win against reigning Premier League champions since Chelsea all the way back in 2010, but also representing a seismic shift in Gunners philosophy; the introduction of defensive midfielder Francis Coquelin and a more disciplined approach all round showing the pragmatic shrewdness they’ve shunned in favour of champagne football over the last few years.

Since that result, Arsene Wenger’s side have lost just once in the Premier League – in the north London derby – and improved their league standing from fifth to second. The Coquelin-induced formula has brought more stability to the Gunners, leading to five clean sheets in their last ten outings. Title-winning form, unquestionably.

The prevailing concern, however, is that we’re witnessing yet another false dawn. Arsenal have a habit of ending campaigns in hollywood fashion just in time for season ticket renewals, whipping their fans into a frenzy of title-winning fantasy before bringing them back down to earth with a lackadaisical start to the following season.

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Their biggest challenge will be to start at the same pace as the rest of the pack next year; this term, for example, the Gunners won just four of their first twelve, dropping down to eighth place. The season previous began with that infamous 3-1 defeat to Aston Villa – which almost caused a small riot at the Emirates – and during the 2012/13 campaign they spent just two weeks in the top four until mid-April.

Similarly, Arsene Wenger’s atrocious record against Jose Mourinho, still waiting on his first win from twelve Premier League encounters with the Portuguese, is another obstacle the north Londoners must overcome to get to the English crown. More than simply the six points on offer, the psychological subtext does the Arsenal boss no favours.

Meanwhile, Manchester United’s 2014/15 campaign draws parallels with Chelsea’s transition process last season. It’s not always been pretty, glamorous or exciting, but hard graft and efficiency has dragged them through. Likewise, their record against the top teams is fantastic, picking up 13 points from a possible 16 against last term’s top four, including four consecutive victories – Arsenal in November, a double over Liverpool and a 4-2 win against the noisy neighbours last weekend.

Admittedly, a Chelsea scalp heralding a title charge in 2015/16 is missing from that list. But in recent weeks, Louis van Gaal’s master plan has finally begun to materialise amid a run of six consecutive wins, three of which have come against some of their closest divisional rivals – Spurs, Liverpool and City. If this is the end result of an often painful transition process, United look ready to challenge next season.

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That being said, the summer window will have a considerably bigger impact on United than Arsenal or Chelsea. Whilst the former will strengthen sparingly and the latter already have a trusted starting Xi, the Red Devils are expected to spend another £150million and sign some major names – potentially Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale and Borussia Dortmund’s Mats Hummels. Although, in theory, the new signings should make United stronger, that all depends on how quickly they settle in.

But the coming weeks will give us some vital insight; Chelsea face Manchester United on Saturday and Arsenal the weekend after. Although the Blues can afford to lose both and still boast one game and at least one point over second place, the fixtures are an important barometer of where all three clubs are at right now, and whether Wenger or van Gaal are capable of outfoxing Mourinho – a manager neither have yet beaten in the Premier League.

We may not be left with a definitive answer to who’ll win next year’s crown, but results over the next fortnight will affirm whether either can compete with Chelsea next season.

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Real Madrid midfielder Xabi Alonso’s reluctance to sign a new contract at the club has set reports in motion about a possible return to Liverpool in the summer, but what are the chances of such a transfer coup coming to fruition for a player who enjoyed five successful seasons on Merseyside?

The 31-year-old Spain international currently has a contract at Madrid which runs through until the end of next season, but with manager Jose Mourinho’s future up in the air, he remains reluctant to commit himself until things become clearer about what path the club intend to take in the future. With the side currently 13 points behind rivals Barcelona in the league, in what has represented a pitiful defence of the title they won in such style last season, not only is a potential change in manager on the cards, but a freshening up in the squad in what promises to be a period of great upheaval if they fail to triumph in the Champions League this term.

In what looks certain to be a quote that will be revisited more and more the closer we draw to the end of the season and the summer, Alonso told the BBC in February: “With Brendan, Liverpool are building a project. They need to be patient. We all want to see Liverpool fighting for the Champions League places. I still follow the Premier League and I still feel very attached to Liverpool and I follow them. I consider myself a Liverpool fan.”

The midfielder’s Anfield exit in the summer of 2009 wasn’t brought about by the need to test himself on a bigger stage, after all, Liverpool had just seriously challenged for the Premier League title losing out to Manchester United by just four points and a couple of Federico Macheda shinned last-minute winners. The club were competing in the Champions League each and every year and in Javier Mascherano and Steven Gerrard, the club had perhaps the best midfield trio in European football outside of Catalonia.

The departure was all but sealed, as everyone knows, by Rafa Benitez’s clumsy pursuit of Aston Villa man Gareth Barry – a move which doesn’t look any more sane with the passing of time. It should be noted, though, that of Alonso’s five years at Anfield, only his first and last touched the heady heights we have come to remember him for; one when trying to impress in a new league and the other when trying to force a move through elsewhere in what has been a convenient re-writing of history to suit the man-love agenda. He has been hugely missed and by just how much has only become easier to quanifty the more time passes, but he’s definitely stepped up a level in terms of consistency while in Spain, certainly more so than he ever managed while at Liverpool.

Alonso moved to Liverpool because of Benitez, but after offering him around anyone that would have him, only Arsenal’s reluctance to offer anything above £15m (has Arsene Wenger made a bigger mistake in the market in the past five years?) stopped him from moving elsewhere in the top flight. Equally so, Alonso wanted to move because of Benitez, rather than a need for a new challenge and a desire to move back home. His one-time mentor had fallen out with him over his desire to be by his wife’s side at the birth of their first child on the eve of a crucial Champions League game and it never recovered and Alonso’s form fluctuated during the 2007-8 campaign before he was made available for transfer, with injuries taking their toll on his form.

When that is put into context, it makes the idea that Alonso fancies a return to Anfield all the more understandable and a reported £80k-a-week contract has been put on the table, while the fee ranges from £12m to £8.5m depending on where you look. What is clear, though, is that Alonso’s departure signalled the end of Liverpool as a top four force, with his ability to control and dominate possession in the middle of the park being sorely missed ever since.

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The narrowly avoided financial disaster of the final days of the Hicks and Gillett ownership saw the side fail to capitalise on a second-placed league finish in 2009 and they refused to invest for another push that summer which saw them subsequently finish seventh the following campaign, sack Benitez, appoint the patently out-of-his depth Roy Hodgson and being forced into selling Mascherano to Barcelona. It’s a state of affairs the club have still struggled to fully recover from and they hovered between eighth and sixth in the league ever since.

Despite his deal at Madrid being worth £130k-per-week, Alonso has spoken of his surprise when he watches top flight matches and how quick the pace and flow of the game is; with time hardly on his side, he could be equally reluctant to dive straight back into a league that he has been absent from for four seasons, even taking into account the significant wage drop. However, with Joe Allen struggling so much this season, Brendan Rodgers will be in the market for an experienced midfielder in the summer, even if he hadn’t bet on setting the bar so high.

Considering the midfield is such a central area of Rodgers possession-based philosophy, it’s remarkable what a mess he’s made of it this season, from playing out of form players (Allen), to unfathomably dropping those in form at times (Jordan Henderson) to just simply playing them out of position altogether (Nuri Sahin). The way he’s chopped and changed points to a manager struggling to pick his best trio or even knowing what they are, while failing to consistently deliver on his message that the side are capable of controlling a game for prolonged spells and Alonso could certainly help in that regard, even if the tempo of the league could ensure a bumpy first few months back.

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As with many sub-plots that have developed over the past few months, plenty rests on the future of Mourinho and whether he chooses to extend his stay in the Spanish capital beyond the end of this season. If he leaves, Alonso may be seriously tempted to look elsewhere too and Liverpool would understandably provide a comfortable and familiar environment to see out the final days of a fantastic career and what better way to try and convince Luis Suarez to stay for another year at the same time, by signing a truly world-class midfield operator in what would represent a real signal of intent and ambition.

Harking back to the initial question and whether the deal is likely, it’s too early to tell at this stage, but he fits the style, the system and already loves the club which ensures they remain right at the front of the queue. If I were a betting man, I’d put it on Alonso staying at Real Madrid until his contract expires, turning down the two-year extension and then perhaps returning to a young and vibrant Real Sociedad side, the place where he started his playing career. His Basque roots will always ensure a stronger emotional pull than his Scouse credentials, but the ball remains firmly in his court and he’s never been a player who has terms dictated to him, rather a principled individual in control of his own career, something which could potentially be a determining factor that could count in Liverpool’s favour ahead of a proposed romantic and sensational comeback to the top flight. It’s a long shot, but I wouldn’t completely rule it out.

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As reported by Sky Sports, Everton are one of the teams interested in signing Watford attacker Richarlison this summer.

What’s the story?

If The Toffees are to improve next term then they badly need to add goals to their game. Seven of the eight teams currently ahead of them in the English Premier League have scored more this season.

One player that could add fresh ideas to their attack is Brazilian Richarlison, who has impressed in spells during his debut season at Watford this term.

That’s according to Sky Sports, who say that Everton are part of a three-team pack, that includes Manchester United and Chelsea, keeping tabs on the 20-year-old ahead of the summer transfer window.

He’d cost a fair whack though, with the outlet also reporting that Watford are looking for a fee of around £40m for his signature.

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Can he make a Goodison Park impact?

With five goals and four assists in his first 18 appearances for Watford, Richarlison looked set to be on his way to a magnificent first year in the English Premier League.

He hasn’t directly contributed to a goal since December though, leading many to question whether he has what it takes to perform consistently at this level.

Sky Sports report though that Watford deem that lack of form as a result of fatigue, with the 20-year-old having played in the summer months in the Brazilian top-flight last year, meaning he’s played 12 months of football without a break.

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If that’s true, a few months of rest could see him firing on all cylinders again either for Watford or a new club like Everton.

If the Toffees are to bite though, the reported £40m fee seems rather steep and they should only move for the player if they can negotiate that down, with resources also needed to be spent in other areas of the team.

Celtic celebrated their first trophy win under manager Ronny Deila last weekend when they beat 10-man Dundee United in the Scottish League Cup. Whilst Ronny Deila wanted to celebrate his with his team, he cut the celebrations short by telling the players they had a midnight curfew!

The two sides were set to meet each other for the third time in 10 days and Delia wanted to make sure his team were fighting fit – and more importantly, not hungover for training on Monday afternoon!

Speaking after the match, Delia told reporters:

“We should enjoy the moment. There will be a couple of beers but it will be early to bed before midnight and ready for training tomorrow.”

Delia has always been keen on making sure his team are fully-fit telling them he wants them to be ’24 hour athletes’ but his comments were made after captain, Scott Brown was seen getting drunk in a strip club four nights before the final.

The Celtic manager however was not bothered about the skipper’s antics as he was home by 10.30pm – and it was a day off! For him fitness is one of the key things for success but setting a positive image for young fans is also very important.

The curfew set by the manager was there to make sure they don’t get carried away in the middle of the season but also set a positive example to youngsters. Delia is keen to show people that while you can celebrate it is possible to celebrate without messing things up for the rest of the week.

And it looks like his tactics worked.

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Celtic’s dreams of a domestic treble remain intact after beating Dundee in the Scottish Cup quarter-final replay. The 4-0 win came in an eventful game with Ryan McGowan being sent off for Dundee and Anthony Stokes for Celtic.

The game was, in the end, a comfortable one and it showed that Celtic were back to business after their evening of celebrations. Ronny Delia is so far showing to be the perfect manager for Celtic.

He knows when to let the players relax but he also knows when to tell them to focus and the most important thing about that is they listen and respect him. Celtic are hoping to win the Scottish Treble and it is good to see such a team united the way they are in all parts of the club.

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Carry on like this and they could be dominating all the Scottish trophies for many years to come. They have the right attitude on and off the pitch and it is good to see a team which is setting a good example to youngsters.

Instead of showing young players and fans that football is all about the money, the fame and the glory; they are showing it is about commitment, passion and pride. In order to achieve trophies and be the best, you have to work hard like you would any other job.

Hopefully more teams will look at Celtic’s ways and take note.

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Liverpool were one of the more active clubs in the top flight during the January transfer window, with Brendan Rodgers adding two fresh faces to the squad in the form of Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho, but have the club, somewhat quietly, started to invest heavily in players again?

Ever since Fenway Sports Group (FSG) took over the club, the financial outlay on transfer has been consistent, large but always with the crucial caveat that net expenditure was reasonable, therefore curbing any great excess on their end. Of course, this doesn’t factor in the astronomical and at times downright bizarre large wages handed out to young players with little or no competition for their signature in sight, and while we can all agree the policy put in place during the flawed Kenny Dalglish and Damien Comolli regime was a flawed one, it was at least definable.

Nevertheless, since Rodgers took over the club in the summer, over the two transfer windows he has presided, the club have now spent approximately £48.8m while recouping just £8m in the same period for a net spend of £40,8m. This figure is more than the previous campaign which came in at £35.35m and the one before that which saw them make a £5.1m profit despite bringing in both Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez for a combined figure of £58m, with any dealings that year somewhat distorted by the £50m received from Chelsea for Fernando Torres, a sum that only the Carroll transfer can rival in terms of gross financial mismanagement. Every player has their price, but let’s at least get the right player in the first place to start with, eh?

This season, Rodgers has brought in Oussama Assaidi for £3m, Fabio Borini for around £10m when you include add-ons, Joe Allen for £15m, Sturridge for £12m and Coutinho for £8,5m. It seems that FSG during the latest window have done their best to grant the manager with more money to invest simply because they let him down so badly in the summer.

Rumours persist that the Nuri Sahin loan signing, which came with a £2m loan fee, and was subsequently ended just six months into it so that he could return to former club Borussia Dortmund, was not Rodgers idea in the first place, but former director of communications Jen Chang’s, with the Assaidi move and his subsequent lack of first-team action coming under the same theory.

The former Swansea manager spoke in the summer when Carroll was allowed to leave on loan about ‘operational issues’ at the club, with confusion reigning over whether a director of football was being brought in or whether it would be transfer by committee. This period also saw FSG reject paying anything over £3.5m for Clint Dempsey who then moved from Fulham to Tottenham for the reasonable amount of £5m, with Sturridge slipping through the clubs finger at the eleventh hour. This has seen the club look desperately short of attacking options during the first half of the campaign and Suarez practically have to carry the side all on his own at times, so why the drastic change in tack since then? And is there even a clearly defined policy in place?

It would seem so, and when you take a look at the ages of the players concerned that Rodgers has signed, or not as may be the case with Assaidi, a pattern has emerged. Coutinho is just 20, Sturridge is 23, Allen is 22 and Borini is 21, yet what they all also have in common is that they have all represented their country at international level despite their tender age to the collective tune of 18 caps.

The policy of buying British potential has been replaced by a more sensible global approach of purchasing young, hungry and potentially world-class talent before they reach their peak and by choosing to shop outside of the top flight a little more, you simply get more value for money, with Coutinho looking a tad on the cheap side for a player with his burgeoning reputation.

This relatively heavy level of investment is a direct consequence of the good job that Rodgers did in reducing the heavy wage bill in the summer, though, which was one of the biggest tasks he was given when handed the job. Carroll has move out on loan with a potential £17m deal in place at the end of the season at West Ham, Charlie Adam, Maxi Rodriguez, Dirk Kuyt, Craig Bellamy, Doni, Alberto Aquilani, Fabio Aurelio and Joe Cole have all been shifted out the exit door since. Wages are the main draining force on big clubs these days, not transfer fees.

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The fact that he has been allowed to spend so much this month with very little return into the club can best be seen as a combination of guilt on FSG’s part for the bungling in the summer and gratitude for completing the task in hand way ahead of schedule. Young players demand less and want less, and it’s no coincidence that Rodgers has chosen to rely so heavily on youth during his time on Merseyside.

When you factor in the ever-changing nature of what constitutes the club’s league ambitions this term, Liverpool still retain an outside chance of pinching a top four place if they can maintain their consistency between now and the end of the season, but the longer they spend away from the lucrative riches of the Champions League, the more it will hurt the club’s coffers in the long run. Their spending has slowly but surely crept up to a more ambitious level again and you sense they need to start winning more to make that gamble worthwhile. It’s far from reckless, even by the standards recently set at the club, but it’s a noticeable change in tack as they attempt to bridge the gap on those above them.

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Liverpool are two games away from potentially reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League, but they have a big test to pass.

The Merseyside outfit will take on English rivals Manchester City in the quarter-finals after ousting Porto in the last-16 stage.

The Premier League meetings between the two clubs this season have been highly entertaining, with 12 goals being scored in total.

The first encounter at the Etihad Stadium ended in misery for Jurgen Klopp and his men as they suffered a 5-0 defeat and lost Sadio Mane.

The Senegal international was given a red card for catching goalkeeper Ederson in the face with a high boot.

The fixture at Anfield, though, was much brighter for the Reds as they came out on top in a thrilling 4-3 result.

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In fact, Liverpool are the only club to beat Pep Guardiola’s side in the league this season.

On Wednesday night, the North-West outfits will go head to head at Anfield in the first leg of the quarter-final, and the home fans are feeling nervous.

There are some things that just aren’t acceptable in the eyes of a football fan.

One of those is leaving a club for their arch rivals. It should never happen. It’s simply wrong. Like cheating on your partner with the one person in the world they truly hate, it is the ultimate betrayal.

And if recent reports are true, Hammers defender Winston Reid is now a target for London rivals Tottenham Hotspur. The New Zealand international’s Upton Park contract expires in the summer and after refusing to sign a new deal with the east London outfit, he has been linked with a number of clubs in the Premier League.

One of those is Arsenal, who are reportedly desperate to strengthen their defensive options this month. Hammers fans aren’t too pleased about losing one of their best players, but leaving for Arsenal would’ve have been fairly acceptable.

Spurs are a completely different prospect all together, though, and the claret and blue faithful aren’t too pleased with the prospect of Reid following in the footsteps of the likes of Michael Carrick, Jermain Defoe and Scott Parker to White Hart Lane.

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Just have a read of some of the comments from West Ham fans on Twitter to realise just how much it would affect them…