The Dutch press have tried to soften up West Ham ahead of the AZ Alkmaar clash Europa Conference League clash tonight.
West Ham play host to AZ Alkmaar at the London Stadium tonight in the semi-final first leg of the Europa Conference League.
Hammers boss David Moyes and co will be desperate to get the win – nothing less than that will do tonight, with a trip to Holland pencilled in for next week.
West Ham will be without three players. Kurt Zouma could make a miraculous recovery, but it’s highly doubtful at this stage.
We are still heavy favourites to win the game, and the Dutch press have gone on the charm offensive before the match, possibly in an attempt to soften us up!
Dutch press try to soften up West Ham ahead of AZ Alkmaar clash
VI Nieuws – a media publication from he Netherlands, has absolutely raved about the Hammers heading into tonight’s game.
They praise for West Ham for doing what they call an ‘exception to the rule’ in the Premier League – keeping our wage-bill relatively low.
The Dutch outlet say that it’s a ‘quite remarkable achievement’ from the Hammers.
Now, we do pay some of our players big, big money – Lucas Paqueta, Alphonse Areola, Danny Ings and Gianluca Scamacca to name a few.
West Ham have the ninth highest wage-bill in the Premier League (talkSPORT). That makes our back to back top seven finishes in 2020/21 and 2021/22 respectively seem really impressive.
The Hammers have upped that wage-bill massively over the past year as well.
West Ham have vastly superior spending power to tonight’s opponents AZ Alkmaar. But we are clearly using our money wisely.
However, that will mean nothing tonight. It will be about who’s the smartest manager tactically and which 11 players want it more.
I think we’ll win the match, but it will certainly not be a walk in the park. And hopefully the Dutch press raving about us as a club will not get to the players’ heads too much!
READ ALSO:
Complete 180 from 26-year-old as he puts in stunning performance for West Ham vs Manchester United
Lucas Paqueta makes it very clear to David Moyes what position he wants to play for West Ham
Receive a digest of our best West Ham content each week direct to your mailbox
