by Staff Writer
Friday, 16th May 2025
Tomas Soucek admits it will be difficult not bumping into compatriot Vladimir Coufal on a daily basis, once the season comes to a climax later this month.
The popular right back is one of four first team squad members confirmed to be leaving the club this summer upon the expiry of their current contracts.
And midfielder Soucek, who had played alongside Coufal for both club and country for the past five years expects that scenario to take some time to get used to.
"I'll be asking him to tell me first where he's going!" Soucek told Sky Sports. "But he'll be a big miss for me and the club as well. It'll be tough not to see him every day, but that's football."
Of course, Soucek's own future remains uncertain in the wake of rumours suggesting current Head Coach Graham Potter would listen to offers for the 30-year-old this summer.
However his only concern right now is ensuring West Ham end the season in the strongest form possible.
"I hope we have great momentum for the last two games and we can show what we can do in those matches," he added.
"It's always difficult to find exactly what's wrong when you're losing. We all want to be winning, it's tough to realise and it was tougher for us because we didn't win for a few games.
"Against Tottenham I saw the passion we had. That's what we were missing, because as footballers we have a lot of individual quality but I think we need to have more character to show we are all united and together.
"With that passion it doesn't matter who loses the ball when they do as we go for it again, altogether. That's what we showed against Tottenham and Man Utd - and we need to bring that into every game.
"The character, the passion of the team beats individual quality and if we put individual quality and spirit together, we can be a really good team. We want to be higher in the table but we still have a couple of games so we can finish ahead both Man Utd and Tottenham.
"That's a big goal for us, but also we want to finish the season in the best possible way after winning at Old Trafford [last weekend]. If we can get good results, we will all remember during the summer we can come back as strong as we finished. It would make a big difference."
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