My mate's Dad's dog | The 'ITK' rumours thread...

[stubbo]

Since we don't have a site ITK seemingly anymore (Wendel, we miss you), this thread is for posting up purported 'ITK' gossip from elsewhere to discuss.

So if you see something from someone with reasonable likelihood of having a meaningful source, post it up in the thread to discuss.

Sources I'm aware of at least worthy of discussion when they report something.  If you know of others let me know and I'll add to the list. 

WestHamRumours
Username: Joyful...seemingly has agent world links

KUMB
Username: Dusseldorf Hammer...German journalist 

Username: Jinxed...long claimed inside info links

Twitter/X.com
Username: WestHamFootball....board stooge Sean Whetstone...direct contact with Sullivan

Username: JacobSteinberg...Guardian journo with links inside the Club

Username: Fabrizio Romano...general 'know everyone's in the transfer universe.

Username: Plettigoal...German journo...close links to Steidten...maybe less ITK for WH now.

​​​​​​YouTube
Claret and Booze...Nick reports links to an intermediary of some description. Clearly knew someone linked to John Duran deal...no internal Club links

Hammers Chat Forum...Gonzo has direct contact with the 'Senior Source' (assumed Sullivan)

Patreon
WestHamWay Podcast...ExWHUEmployee...various links within the club including Sullivan, youth coaches, ex players, agents and well connected Journos (Darmesh, Steinberg). Also now a registered agent of a number of Youth players at WHU.

YouIrons Podcast...Roshane Thomas...Athletic West Ham correspondent...direct links to current playing squad, present at managerial press conferences, present in post-game player lounge.

Will get round to linking the above where possible eventually.



 

[Manuel]

Rumour mill saying we have moved on from KWP.

[fraser]

What a load of fucking old bollocks. Who was your source? Claret and booze or hammers chat? Both fucking click bait wankers. That twat Nick said David was signing for us in January. No one knows anything.

Why do you keep making stuff up while at the same time abusing others for posting rumours on a rumours thread.

You're clearly unhinged, get some help. 

[THUNDERCLINT]

Cock Piss Potter's going to drop Fullkrug for Brighton.

Not reading the room is he...

[claypole]

It wont be long until the chairman's stooges go into overdrive with the smoke and mirrors routine.

I for one am looking forward to it.

[Massive Attack]

Quite a few of our Squad come across as the modern day version of the Baby Bentley crew. The discipline in that dressing room involving a number of them are clearly a disruptive influence that we could do without. 


Kudus 
Todibo
Areola
Alvarez

Chuck in a German Grenade to the mix and you have a powder keg situation just waiting to go off..

I'd get rid of all 4 of them this summer for starters based on poor performance and/or suspect discipline/attitudes. 

[Eerie Decent]

We probably all thought the rumour about Loppy having a tear up with Areola, Kudus & Todibo was a load of old bollocks when we first heard it.

[LJC]

What a load of fucking old bollocks. Who was your source? Claret and booze or hammers chat? Both fucking click bait wankers. That twat Nick said David was signing for us in January. No one knows anything.

I didn’t get it from either of those you stroppy cսnt but the source is listed on this thread as a source to be copied over. Have you seen the thread title?

[THUNDERCLINT]

23 Apr 2025 17:42:42
Somethings going on at WH, I'm told that Jarrod Bowen as Captain, is airing his views, to someone on the board ( don't know who ) re Potter, his tactics and Instructions, the players are unhappy with the manager it seems, this is heading for trouble of some kind

 

It's Noble I saw Bowen at his place on the Mount when I walked the mutt earlier.

[Massive Attack]

Does anyone know why the injury free Alvarez wasn't available to play at all against Southampton yet?

[twoleftfeet]

It’s on Hammers chat

Click bait.

[twoleftfeet]

What a load of fucking old bollocks. Who was your source? Claret and booze or hammers chat? Both fucking click bait wankers. That twat Nick said David was signing for us in January. No one knows anything.

[Massive Attack]

All so tragically predictable. Complete and utter waste of time dicking around with this pointless coward yes man of a fraud.

[LJC]

23 Apr 2025 17:42:42
Somethings going on at WH, I'm told that Jarrod Bowen as Captain, is airing his views, to someone on the board ( don't know who ) re Potter, his tactics and Instructions, the players are unhappy with the manager it seems, this is heading for trouble of some kind

[LJC]

23 Apr 2025 15:53:48
Trouble ahead, more players WANT. to leave than, those in the news, following on from Loppy, Potter is disconnecting, with 3/4 other players, who don't like his all possession going nowhere style, this is not good at all, and two agents, have told my source, that enquiries from WH, have fallen flat on their players ears, one from Salthouse and one from Roof, they are not interested in joining WH .so Sullivan, going to have to do something to sort this out, Chelsea are busy once again offering us players starting with Nkunku at £30 m, Blue co will accept £20 m loss on him, Sancho the Gk has also been offered, price not known,Joyfull

[Stuart The Slater]

Pay peanuts get monkeys 

[LJC]

26 Mar 2025 12:33:07
Change of Tack . WH have had to look at other back ups for Rb position, like Max Johnston of Sturm Graz, Hogsburg and others, , because, Walker Peters who was close to making an agreement with WH, has began to waiver, after receiving ( say his agents ) better offers elsewhere, his former club Spurs, have apparently offered a large signing on fee, and two other clubs have now made offers, ?. so WH shifting towards youngsters, which is the right way to go, moving on to forwards, as mentioned before Sindre Egeli. Is fancied, and in France WH prefer Emegha as first choice (, before many others )if they can do a deal with Blue co, and another being looked at is Dino Beljo, playing at Rapid Vienna, although Antonio, is likely for a one year contract, two forwards to come in, is really what is needed and wanted, things will become clearer, in another month or so, Although, WH have been linked with Karetsas , the young Greek player but so have 11 other clubs, nothing going on with him at present, and looks unlikelyJoyfull

 

[El Scorchio]

Steinberg somewhat reliable on info,looks like Potter doesn't fancy Fullkrug.

Or he’s one of the only few they’d be able to recoup some money on. 

[Ladysmith]

I read today that we are going in for Kyle Walker Peters.

Acquiring the better players from relegated teams is so us.

[ragingbull]

Steinberg somewhat reliable on info,looks like Potter doesn't fancy Fullkrug.

[El Scorchio]

Makes complete sense to look at trying to pick up a gem or two in the lower leagues for better value, and if you're looking for defensive options then it makes even more sense to scout the teams conceding the least amount of goals.

What would be moronic is to not even take a look at these players based on assumptions about how they play and what their defensive record might look like if they had a different manager.

The flaw is that Burnley's defenders will now be really expensive come the end of the season, so we'll have missed out and be forking out far too much. We need to be finding these players before they 'break out' as it were for the likes of 5-10 mill rather than 20-30 after they've become a premium price, and in wages as well as fee.

Agree, that would be absolutely ideal if we could spot them on the cheap and pick them up before the price rises.   But there is still allot of work to do for a 5-10m youngster.  At that price it could still go either way and I expect there are a number of youngsters in our youth teams who the club we will compare them with to see if they are worth the outlay.
The richer clubs can do it because they can afford to lose the money, but it's not often you'll see us spend millions on a player that isn't expected to hit the ground running as it eats into the budget for players we need imediately.  It was actually refreshing for me to see us take a risk on Guillherme.

This is true, but it's where we can really try and improve our talent identification. Look at Brighton Brentford and Bournemouth. On the whole very cheaply put together teams, but based on great talent spotting rather than CV/name and how they fit into what the senior side wants to do. I agree that more than ever the Chelseas are gobbling these players up, but the three 'B's do prove that it can be done if you have the right structure in place at the club. This for me is probably the biggest positive of Potter coming in with Macauley and their experience at Brighton doing exactly this. Our club needs a similar mindset. More importantly the owner needs to be fucking patient. not meddle in it, and trust his employees. That is the biggest test- particularly if things aren't immediately good. He's got zero patience.

Guilherme is I agree an interesting one and refreshing. Yes we did pay a decent amount for him but it's exactly the player profile we should be going after as a long term strategy in tandem with buying a few for 'now'. Even in that the evidence of Sullivan's 'itchy finger' was there. A player clearly stated 'not for now' and the dwarf starts mouthing off through his sources about it being a waste within three months and the player not being any good with loads of stories saying we should sell him for a loss. Notice how that's all gone quiet now- clearly was a stick to beat Stiedten with and try and help justify his exit. That's the biggest obstacle for Potter and Macauley. Their own fucking boss who will not hesitate to cut them off at the knees on a whim.

[scott_d]

This is so moronic. Apart from the massive step up in divisions, it's pretty obvious that conceding fewer goals is as much or more down to how the team sets up as it is to the quality of individual players. Scott Parker is known for playing extremely boring defensive football. That's why they don't concede much. If Kompany was still in charge there and they had the same players they'd have conceded a lot more (and scored a lot more too, probably).

Makes complete sense to look at trying to pick up a gem or two in the lower leagues for better value, and if you're looking for defensive options then it makes even more sense to scout the teams conceding the least amount of goals.

What would be moronic is to not even take a look at these players based on assumptions about how they play and what their defensive record might look like if they had a different manager.

Yeah, sure. But, the quote says that we're looking at those Burnley players because of the team's defensive performance, suggesting that the assumption is that they must be very good to concede so few goals. All I'm saying is that it's a bit stupid to assume that but it's the way a lot of people think. They look at basic statistics like goals scored or conceded and decide that's the measure of a players' quality and don't bother thinking about any kind of context. 

Agree, but I'd like to think that it's an indication that it's worth a look.  And then the people at the club that are paid to make those judgments can watch the players play and decide if there is any talent there or if there is another bigger contributor to the decent defensive record.  
I doubt very much that we would sign a championship player without doing a decent amount of scouting because it's so easy to just get down to a game and watch them play.

[Jean-Luc Paul Goddard]

 

This is so moronic. Apart from the massive step up in divisions, it's pretty obvious that conceding fewer goals is as much or more down to how the team sets up as it is to the quality of individual players. Scott Parker is known for playing extremely boring defensive football. That's why they don't concede much. If Kompany was still in charge there and they had the same players they'd have conceded a lot more (and scored a lot more too, probably).

Makes complete sense to look at trying to pick up a gem or two in the lower leagues for better value, and if you're looking for defensive options then it makes even more sense to scout the teams conceding the least amount of goals.

What would be moronic is to not even take a look at these players based on assumptions about how they play and what their defensive record might look like if they had a different manager.

Yeah, sure. But, the quote says that we're looking at those Burnley players because of the team's defensive performance, suggesting that the assumption is that they must be very good to concede so few goals. All I'm saying is that it's a bit stupid to assume that but it's the way a lot of people think. They look at basic statistics like goals scored or conceded and decide that's the measure of a players' quality and don't bother thinking about any kind of context. 

[scott_d]

This is so moronic. Apart from the massive step up in divisions, it's pretty obvious that conceding fewer goals is as much or more down to how the team sets up as it is to the quality of individual players. Scott Parker is known for playing extremely boring defensive football. That's why they don't concede much. If Kompany was still in charge there and they had the same players they'd have conceded a lot more (and scored a lot more too, probably).

Makes complete sense to look at trying to pick up a gem or two in the lower leagues for better value, and if you're looking for defensive options then it makes even more sense to scout the teams conceding the least amount of goals.

What would be moronic is to not even take a look at these players based on assumptions about how they play and what their defensive record might look like if they had a different manager.

The flaw is that Burnley's defenders will now be really expensive come the end of the season, so we'll have missed out and be forking out far too much. We need to be finding these players before they 'break out' as it were for the likes of 5-10 mill rather than 20-30 after they've become a premium price, and in wages as well as fee.

Agree, that would be absolutely ideal if we could spot them on the cheap and pick them up before the price rises.   But there is still allot of work to do for a 5-10m youngster.  At that price it could still go either way and I expect there are a number of youngsters in our youth teams who the club we will compare them with to see if they are worth the outlay.
The richer clubs can do it because they can afford to lose the money, but it's not often you'll see us spend millions on a player that isn't expected to hit the ground running as it eats into the budget for players we need imediately.  It was actually refreshing for me to see us take a risk on Guillherme.

[El Scorchio]

 

This is so moronic. Apart from the massive step up in divisions, it's pretty obvious that conceding fewer goals is as much or more down to how the team sets up as it is to the quality of individual players. Scott Parker is known for playing extremely boring defensive football. That's why they don't concede much. If Kompany was still in charge there and they had the same players they'd have conceded a lot more (and scored a lot more too, probably).

Makes complete sense to look at trying to pick up a gem or two in the lower leagues for better value, and if you're looking for defensive options then it makes even more sense to scout the teams conceding the least amount of goals.

What would be moronic is to not even take a look at these players based on assumptions about how they play and what their defensive record might look like if they had a different manager.

The flaw is that Burnley's defenders will now be really expensive come the end of the season, so we'll have missed out and be forking out far too much. We need to be finding these players before they 'break out' as it were for the likes of 5-10 mill rather than 20-30 after they've become a premium price, and in wages as well as fee.

[El Scorchio]

We REALLY are trying to sign Jonathan David.! 

Head turning offer. According to some Specky guy on YT. Must be true then.?

Head turningly low, most likely. 10 million, a pile of old porn mags and a portion of chips.
Our offer has made them turn their heads the other way.