Just sold my house to James Ward-Prowse...

More good news is that James Ward-Prowse is returning from his loan spell at Nottingham Forest, where he's been stuck on the bench all season, bar one assist for an Awonyi goal at Wolves. 

It was baffling why Julen Lopetegui loaned out JWP, a seasoned Premier League performer who scored seven goals and made 11 assists last season. That's a total of 18 goal involvements. True, he might have wanted a more dynamic or speedy central midfielder than steady James, but West Ham ended up with the one-paced Soler and Rodriguez as replacements, who have one goal and one assist between them. Even if Ward-Prowse wasn't going to be a regular starter for Loppy, he would have been a great player to bring off the bench for his free kicks and corners when WHU were seeking a breakthough.

There was no return clause in the loan deal with Forest so the club has done well to persuade Forest to let him go. Presumably Ward-Prowse told them he wanted to return after hardly featuring. Graham Potter seems to appreciate JWP's understated qualities. He's a good pro who trains well, rarely gets injured and never complains when dropped. As the club website says he will add "experience, depth and quality" to the squad. JWP is used to playing with Alvarez and Soucek and Tomas and co must be looking forward to getting on the end of his corners. And someday soon he has to score with a free kick. Ward-Prowse will be like a £30m signing - in fact he was a £30m signing the club seemed to forget about. Welcome home, JWP.

It's Fergie time!

It's encouraging news that Brighton's Evan Ferguson is having a medical at West Ham prior to a loan move. At 20 the Ireland international is a good age. He looked a fantastic prospect when he made his debut at Brighton and scored a hat-trick against Newcastle when he was just 18. Ferguson has scored 19 goals in all competitions for Brighton though has mainly been used as a sub this season. He lost his way somewhat last season through injury and perhaps achieving success too early. There's no denying his potential though, and no less a judge than Alan Shearer said that Fergie seems to have it all: "Left foot, right foot, headers, pace, aggression, intuition; there is no obvious weakness to his game."

There will be some worries when a player as young as Ferguson gets injuries and also whether he did too well to quickly. But Potter knows him from his time as Brighton boss and as an empathetic man manager he should be be able to protect him from any sense of complacency. While his dad Barry Ferguson played for Coventry City and will offer solid advice. This might benefit Brighton in the long term, but for this season Ferguson solves a problem. Evan is six foot tall, mobile and positively cherubic compared to our old bloke strike force of Fullkrug and Ings. Could he finally be the answer to West Ham's striker hoodoo? It's exciting to think what he might do with crosses from Bowen, Kudus and Summerville plus through balls from Paqueta.