Home Is Where The Hart Is

Joe Hart returns to the club from where he started all those years ago and expects plenty of pelters from the home supporters of Shrewsbury, the BBC are going be there for what should be a good old fashioned FA Cup tie, unfortunately West Ham United are 'serial offenders' when it comes to losing against lower league opposition in cup competitions! Having already had his fingers burnt by Shrewsbury while he was manager at Everton, David Moyes will be on his guard in order to avoid a similar cup exit with the Hammers.

The selection of 'England's No1' raised more than a few eyebrows given his recent lamentable form and the fact that Adrian has made the goal keepers position his own of late, it is one of those situations where Hart might even have considered 'throwing a sicky' to avoid the glare of the cameras recording what will be an extremely tricky match to navigate. Recent rumours about Hart possibly going to St James' Park to 'bolster' Newcastle's survival hopes have taken on more credibility with the news that West Ham have just signed 'the future' in the form of highly rated Nigerian goalkeeper Daniel Jinadu who has completed his transfer following a successful trial. The U-16 goalkeeper has signed a two year apprenticeship deal with the club having the option to extend by a further three years should things progress as planned,

Having been released by Chelsea Jinadu overcame his disappointment by training with Southampton, Tottenham, Leicester, Birmingham, West Brom and AC Milan before agreeing a switch to West Ham, he has caps for England's U15 national team and made his debut for the U16s against Uruguay in 2017, he is also eligible to represent the Republic of Ireland national teams, as well as England and Nigeria. Of course young Daniel is not going to be making the match day squad for some time, but his signing does give Hammers more strength in depth between the sticks than before and is a sign of the club looking more to the future, he is yet another player that West Ham have acquired from champions Chelsea, he joins up at the London Stadium with fellow ex-Chelsea youth players Declan Rice and Domino Quina.

Hammers have some really exciting young players on their books and today's 'live on network terrestrial TV' match will give people a chance to see what the young guns can do. However, David Moyes will NOT be sending his youth team to the slaughter as Sam Allardyce once did when he was managing West Ham against Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup, a match that saw Hammers trounced by 5-0 and a match that traumatised and destroyed the confidence of many of the youngsters who were selected for that fateful game.

Sead Hakserbanovic is one player who fans have been desperate to see start, not only for his sublime skills but also to hear match commentators try to pronounce his name properly, it's hard enough normally let alone in the heat of 'battle'! Sead represents the future along with players like Martin Samuelson, Josh Cullen and the two Reece's Oxford and Burke, hopefully they will be given a chance to show their worth and who knows today might present the opportunity for one or two of them to force their way in to the manager's thoughts for the first team. The youngsters will be given a platform to perform, some will inevitably sink, but some will prosper, after all the old adage "if you are good enough, you are old enough" still applies in football, just remember some of the 'greats' who began their first team careers as teenagers! - Ed