Young Hammers pair join Bolton
Our bright young Academy duo of Josh Cullen and Reece Burke have joined EFL Championship side Bolton Wanderers on season-long loans. Both Cullen and Burke were recently on our pre-season tour of Europe, featuring in four friendlies against Sturm Graz ll, Fulham and two fixtures against Bundesliga side Werder Bremen. However, the starlets were allowed to fly back to England ahead of the Altona 93 game to formally sign for Phil Parkinson at The Macron Stadium. Burke spent most of last season on-loan at Wigan, but has broken into the Hammers first-team on a number of occasions in the last few years. Similarly, his counterpart Cullen has had limited opportunities in the past few seasons and was a key figure for Bradford City last year, as they agonisingly missed out on promotion from League One. Many fans and pundits believe that the move won’t be right for the two players, who deserve their chance in Slaven Bilic’s first-team. So, will it be the final season of loans for the likes of Burke, Cullen and other young talents such as Reece Oxford?
Betway to give up shirt-sponsorship to DT38
Our primary-sponsor Betway have announced that The Dylan Tombides Foundation will be our shirt-sponsor for Friday’s glamorous friendly against Manchester City in Iceland. The Charity was set up in aid of the late former Hammers striker Dylan Tombides, who had his life cut tragically short by Testicular Cancer in April 2014. The starlet showed great character and spirit throughout his three-year long battle with the illness and even made his first-team debut whilst recovering from his first bout, in a League Cup game with Wigan Athletic in September 2012. The club and Betway continue to work with the foundation, who’s primary aim is to raise awareness of men’s health issues, even to this day. The vital message of DT38 will be proudly spread against Pep Guardiola’s men on Friday, with a certain special someone looking down on Reykjavik from above.
Ogbonna applauds winning mentality
Our Italian international defender Angelo Ogbonna has praised the winning mentality of our new summer additions. We have captured the two-time Premier League winning triple header of Joe Hart, Pablo Zabaleta and Javier Hernandez and also the £23 million Stoke City winger Marko Arnautovic. Ogbonna himself won back-to-back Serie A titles during his time at Juventus and had this to say to WHUFC.com about the dressing room atmosphere: “I think it’s very important to have winners at the club, and we have a lot of international players who have won things, not only our new-signings”. The No21 is clearly looking forward to the new-Premier League season, and who can blame him after our stellar summer of recruitment?
Transfer gossip: Hammers eye further attacking options
It has been reported this week by The Daily Star that we are still on the hunt for sought-after Burnley striker Andre Gray. The rumours started with insider source Ex WHU Employee claiming that we could yet bring the 26-year-old in with the money from the sale of fellow attackers Enner Valencia and Ashley Fletcher. Gray played a key role for Sean Dyche’s men in maintaining their place in The Premier League last term, scoring ten goals in all competitions last season. So, could the former Luton Town man join the likes of Chicharito and Marko Arnautovic at The London Stadium to bolster our attacking options for the up-coming 2017/2018 season.
It has been rumoured in the last couple of days by Football.London that we could be set to miss out in our pursuit of Montpellier midfielder Ryan Boudebouz, despite our heavy interest in the Algerian. Boudebouz impressed last season for the French outfit and has attracted interest from the likes of Sampdoria and Bayer Leverkusen, but is expected to make the move to La Liga side Real Betis imminently. Will we act quickly to secure the services of the former Bastia man?