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Here we go, Jim 'Brown Nose' White will have his yellow tie and pink shirt on later as he takes his traditional role up as Sky and Talksport's Anchor man. Hammers have been busy, who else will join Alphonse Areola, Kurt Zouma and Nikola Vlasic?

When we use the term giraffe in association with Hammers centre back Issa Diop, it is generally a jovial reference to his height and his gait, but we have used it in this article's headline because there are rumours, which first surfaced a couple of weeks ago, that Crystal Palace want to sign Diop, ON LOAN!

There are cheeky bids and there are cheeky bids, Palace's falls into the incredibly cheeky bracket, why on earth would David Moyes want to leave himself with just three centre backs to get through an entire campaign that sees the club competing in FOUR competitions?

West Ham have announced the signing of Nikola Vlašić, The Croatia international joins from Russian club CSKA Moscow on a five year contract. The deal is reportedly worth £25.72 Million with another £7.7 Million in potential add-ons.

The vastly experienced Vlašić, despite being just 23 years of age, has already played more than 250 senior matches and has also established himself at international level having made 26 appearences for Croatia and played his part for his country at Euro 2020.

Armed with his reinforcements acquired during this long and protracted summer transfer window, Hammers boss David Moyes is likely to make one or two 'adjustments' to his team that is currently 2nd in the Barclays Premier League. Bearing in mind where the club sits in the League it might seem churlish to suggest the need for changes, but one or two cracks, or maybe fisions to be more accurate, have begun to appear in the team's defence. A failing that Moyes has already moved to address as he attempts to take his team to the 'next' level.

At Org HQ during the next day post match where the game against Palace was 'investigated' using a full recording of the game, it became very apparent that David Moyes's comments about the poor quality of the pitch at the London 'Dome' were totally justified.

Well just like waiting for the proverbial London Bus or Policemen, you desperately want one, none turns up and then suddenly one appears after the other, as if by magic. The same can be said for Hammers transfer activity, huge delays and lots of excuses followed by a sudden glut!

In what was an enthralling and entertaining match to watch at the London Stadium, if you were a neutral, West Ham twice went ahead through the Duracel bunny that is Pablo Fornals and Michail Antonio, unfortunately Conor Gallagher scored a brace for Patrick Vieira's Crystal Palace to draw the visitors level as David Moyes winning start to the season came to an ultimately frustrating end in what was a stonking London derby.

West Ham: Fabiański, Coufal, Dawson, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Rice (c), Souček, Bowen, Fornals, Benrahma, Antonio Subs: Areola (GK), Fredericks, Johnson, Baptiste, Diop, Coventry, Lanzini, Noble, Yarmolenko
Palace: Guaita, Ward, Guéhi, Andersen, Mitchell, Kouyaté, McArthur (c), Zaha, Gallagher, Ayew, Benteke Subs: Butland, Tomkins, Riedewald, Schlupp, Kelly, Hannam, Street, Rak-Sakyi, Mateta

To be a successful professional sportsperson requires an astonishing amount of self belief as well as talent and hard work, these are requisite qualities for survival in the cut throat environment of 'elite' football, especially when referring to the Barclays Premier League.