Lanzini-“It was amazing tonight”
Our Argentine ‘jewel’ Manuel Lanzini was in high spirits after he continued his impressive form against Spurs by netting the winner in Friday night’s 1-0 victory over Mauricio Pochettino’s men. The goal meant that Lanzini continued his incredible run of scoring in London derby’s, well over a half of the 24 year-olds Premier League strikes have been against fellow London rivals. After winning The Man of the Match award for his efforts in derailing The North London club’s title challenge, The Argentine Olympic star was in jubilant mood, having this to say in an exclusive post-match interview with WHUFC.com: “I like playing against Tottenham and scoring against them! It was amazing tonight and the team played very well”. Lanzini has now played himself into contention for Hammer of the Year and moved one behind Michail Antonio in the race for season top goal scorer. There is no doubt that the former River Plate man has been one of our shining lights, in what has been a very tough first season at The London Stadium.
Noble: “The atmosphere was unreal”
Our skipper Mark Noble was all smiles as he made his full comeback from suspension, in our historic win over Spurs two days ago. The win came as early 30th birthday present for Nobes, just a couple of games after reaching the landmark of 400 appearances in Claret and Blue. The 29-year-old has had most of his season blighted by suspension and injury and much like the whole of the team, Noble has failed to reach the heights of last season. However Noble was in no mood to reflect on a poor season, but only to celebrate winning the bragging rights over our North London rivals, having this to say in a post-match interview: “The atmosphere was unreal. The boys were fantastic it was a great performance from every single one of us”. The club captain may be turning 30 on Monday, but one thing is for sure, his passion and pride for our Football club is something that will always stay the same.
Transfer gossip: Hammers’ ramp up interest in duo
Sunderland manager David Moyes has this week revealed that our former striker and rumoured transfer target Jermain Defoe has a relegation clause in his contract. The Black Cat’s late loss to Bournemouth last week confirmed their relegation to The Championship and made the former England striker’s future at The North East club even more uncertain. Defoe scored over 25 goals in Claret and Blue between1999-2004 and over ten years later the 34-year-old is still banging in the strikes, but his 15 Premier League goals haven’t been enough to keep David Moyes’s men up this term. Our former manager Sam Allardyce is also reportedly interested in the former Spurs man, so we could face some major competition if we are going to finally reunite with our former academy product. It has been rumoured this week by The Daily Star that we are ramping up our interest in Lyon winger Rachid Ghezzal, ahead of a possible summer move for The Algerian. The 24-year-old has impressed this season both in The Europa League and Ligue 1 for The French club, but we may face some competition from Monaco and Everton to land the young star’s signature. So could the Algerian international be joining fellow countryman Sofiane Feghouli at The London Stadium next season?
U23’s prepare for Play-Off tie
Our bright young U23 side are currently preparing for the first leg of their PL2 division 2 Play-Off first leg with Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux tomorrow night. Terry Westley’s side made the Play-Offs in style with an impressive 0-4 win at The Hawthorns on the final day of the season. So could our PL2 starlets be heading for division 1?
OTD-2006
On this day in 2006 we ironically overcame Spurs 2 -1 to deny The North Londoner’s a Champions League spot. The game took place in the wake of one of the most famous food scandals in Premier League history, as prior to the game Martin Jol’s side were overcame by food poisoning with a dodgy hotel Lasagne believed to be the cause. The resulting illness meant that much of The Spurs squad were unable to feature in the fixture and two goals in the form of Carl Fletcher’s early opener and a late Yossi Benayoun winner, meant that The Lilywhites missed out on a spot in Europe’s biggest domestic club competition. We ourselves ended up with European Football that season, as under Alan Pardew despite our ninth place League finish reached The UEFA Cup first round, due to our efforts in The FA cup that year.