West Ham emerged from the Premier League Summer series with two wins and a narrow 2 – 1 defeat: Not quite as the doom mongers had envisioned before the series took place. Not to say that all is perfect: Had Bournemouth not hut the woodwork three time last night then there could have been a very different taste in our mouths as supporters this morning. Such is football.
El Hadji-Malick Diouff took the man of the match award after creating both goals and looking good indolence too: So far a pretty decent buy for £20-odd million, which by current Premier League standards is not a lot.
However, one of the less trumpeted but still pretty shrewd signings this summer is, I suspect, going to be Kyle Walker-Peters. The 28 year-old former Saints man might not be at the forefront of the ‘Graham Potter youth revolution’.
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Nevertheless he looked up to speed immediately last night and had one goal-saving intervention late on when he somehow managed to contort himself to back heel a cross behind when facing his own goal, denying Bournemouth a late goal.
Walker-Peters may not grab the headlines like Diouff or leave players for dead as Aaron Wan Bissaka managed, but his ability to cover both wing back and full back positions makes him an excellent defender on the bench: Plus of course the AFCON means both Diouff and Wan-Bissaka will be away for six weeks.
Maybe not a big money signing, maybe not as flamboyant as the two names ahead of him on the team sheet, but a pretty shrewd West Ham signing nonetheless.