Football Daily | West Ham want promotion – so it’s time to call in an understated club legend

Football Daily | West Ham eye promotion – so it’s time to call on a quiet club icon

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Although Football Daily hasn’t closely followed West Ham’s season, we’ve seen enough of their results to guess they were doing well in their bid to return to the Premier League after being relegated. Less than a third into the Championship campaign under Nuno Espírito Santo, they had already thrashed both Wrexham and Lincoln 6-0, and scored three or more in victories over Wolves, Derby and Bolton. Yet it emerges that out of 13 matches in a division famously tough to escape (unless you were Sheffield Wednesday last season), they have actually lost three times and currently sit in eighth place, a full six points behind leaders Middlesbrough. Given such a vast gap, it’s no wonder West Ham fans woke up to news that Nuno had been abruptly shown the door from the London Stadium with a P45 in hand.

“While my heart aches for Jesús de Miguel, who has died after a collision with Andorra goalkeeper Jesús Owono, I shudder to think of the trauma that will haunt Owono for the rest of his life. I do hope and pray the wider community understands and extends its support in his recovery” – Krishna Moorthy.

“As an upgrade to Steve Plever’s suggestion of paper-thin shirts [Monday’s letters]: how about Velcro shirts? If the bit comes off, it’s a shirt pull, and the offender has the honour of putting it back in place before being awarded a yellow card” – Mike Harold.

“To dive or not to dive seems to be the biggest dilemma in the Premier League right now. It’s not. The problem with today’s highly paid professionals is that they simply have no panache at all when they go down. I recall watching Francis Lee pick up the ball on the halfway line at a mud-soaked Maine Road in the late 1960s. He put his head down and headed for goal, determined and single-minded. He was 30 yards from goal, in full flow. He was tackled from behind, and then he really took off – he grew wings, he soared. I swear he landed in the penalty area over 10 yards away. He dragged himself to his feet and, without a hint of a smile, smashed the well-deserved penalty with a very heavy leather ball straight at the centre of the goal at over 70 mph. The goalkeeper, obviously no fool, simply dived out of the way. The press christened him ‘Lee Won Pen’. He was my hero. That man had panache, he had style” – Myles Flynn.

“I am interested to read that Aston Villa considered the words of Jamie Carragher ‘unacceptable insults’. It would obviously help matters if they could publish examples of acceptable insults” – Rupert Jeffery.

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