We've signed a player!

For a moment it felt like we’d all spent too long in the sun. But after a summer of inaction it turned out the rumours were true and West Ham really have signed a player. Left back El Hadji Malick Diouf has signed from Slavia Prague for £19 million plus add-ons. The Czech side won the league last season and it’s hopefully a lucky omen that Slavia Prague’s home ground is the Eden Stadium where West Ham won the Europa Conference League in 2023.

Last season Diouf scored seven goals from his wing-back position for Slavia and provided three assists. He also impressed keeping Arsenal’s Saka quiet while playing for Senegal in their recent 3-1 friendly win over England. At 20 he is a good age and could be one El of a player. Diouf’s also shown a lot of character to leave home at a young age, first for Tromso in Norway and then Slavia Prague.

This is a glimpse of the side Potter wants, with Wan-Bissaka and Diouf as forward-thinking wing-backs with three defenders in the middle. The 30-year old Emerson will surely be moved on with Ollie Scarles as the main back-up on the left. What that system will need though is a couple of dynamic midfielders to make it work and another striker to compete with Fullkrug. But this at least feels like progress after the sale of Kudus.

Kudus goes for £55 million

So Mohammed Kudus has gone to Spurs for £55 million. The club could surely have got more money if WHU had waited until deadline day, but thanks to financial fair play fears we needed money in now to make new signings. Chelsea had lost interest, the player wanted to leave and sadly Spurs was the only offer on the table.

There are many standout moments from Kudus's fine first season: his first league goal against Newcastle, a great volley at Brentford, those two crosses that won the game late on at Burnley, a well-taken goal against Arsenal in the League Cup, that fantastic run from the halfway line to score against Freiberg and a superb overhead kick away to Man City.

But let's be clear Kudus had a poor season last time round. That petulant sending off at Spurs and his five-game ban indicated something was wrong. A player of his ability should have scored more than five goals and at times he looked selfish, dribbling and losing possession when he should have played the simple ball. Yes, he had a great game in the win at Arsenal for example, but we didn't see enough of that. Without European football it looked like he was dreaming of another club. 

The other problem is that successive managers never found Mo's best position. If it was on the right wing then that is where Jarrod Bowen plays. And once the club had Bowen, Kudus, Fullkrug and Summerville on the books it was never clear how all four could play together without leaving a severely weakened midfield.

It's never good to see a player of undoubted ability go to Spurs, even if we have made a £17 million profit on Mo, who was signed for £38 million. But Potter desperately needs some powerful and fast midfielders and defensive and attacking reinforcements. The quality of his signings will decide whether this was a good deal or not. But at least with some money freed up we might now see some action.

One Cummings and many goings at West Ham

Well, not much has happened on the rebuilding front so far this summer. The only signing has been 19-year old striker Daniel Cummings from Celtic. He made his senior Celtic debut as a sub against Aston Villa in the Champions League, but is probably one for the Under-21 side this season. Graham Potter has a record of giving youngsters a chance, so perhaps Cummings might be one for the future along with returning loanees George Earthy, Callum Marshall (who scored nine times for Huddersfield last season) and Freddie Potts.

The squad is certainly looking thin with the departures of Cresswell, Ings, Coufal, Fabianski, Zouma, Soler, Ferguson and it seems Antonio. Much seems to depend on selling Mohammed Kudus to free up some cash. Tottenham have had a £50m bid knocked back but if it's upped to £60m plus then he will surely go. It would be nice to sell Mo to anyone but Spurs, though Chelsea seem to have lost interest. 

The fact is Kudus started brilliantly in 2023-24 but then had a poor season last time round and never seemed to recover from that five-game suspension after being stupidly sent off at Spurs. He tried to take on too many players at times and only scored five goals. Mo's undoubtedly talented but his best position is on the right wing where Jarrod Bowen plays. If WHU can get a good price then it makes sense to sell a player who looks like his ambition lies elsewhere.

The best other options for raising cash might be if Emerson or Nayef Aguerd are  sold, though Potter reportedly likes Aguerd and I'd be happy to see him stay. He might have a mistake in him at times, but they're fewer than Dinos makes. Edson Alvarez might also leave, though having just captained and scored for Mexico as they won the CONCACAF Gold Cup you do wonder, like Sgt Wilson, if that's awfully wise.

We thought we'd won the transfer window last summer so let's remember that early signings don't always work out. Though there has to be hope that in their second seasons we'll see improvements from Kilman, Todibo, Summerville and, if he stays, Fullkrug. What is essential is that Potter and co have clear targets once the Kudus money comes in. It may all go down to deadline day, so let's hope Karren Brady has stocked up on her fax paper from Ryman's.  

Iron Maiden's home fixture at the London Stadium

Hammers in the Heart's heavy metal correspondent Nigel Morris reviews Iron Maiden's recent appearance at the London Stadium... 

I finally made it onto the London Stadium pitch as two of my passions - footballing and musical - collided when Iron Maiden, one of the world's biggest and most enduring heavy metal bands, returned to their roots in the East End.

Fifty years after the band made their first appearance to a handful of punters in the Cart and Horses, Maryland, they played a mile up the road to 75,000 sweltering fans packed into our ground.

The reason? Band leader Steve Harris is an obsessive Hammer, always appearing on stage with the club crest on his bass and with claret and blue guitar straps and wristbands. He invariably sneaks West Ham references onto album covers including ‘Hammers rule OK!’ and the wildly optimistic ‘Latest results … West Ham 7 Arsenal 3’ message on Maiden’s Somewhere in Time record.

At 14, Steve was even spotted by the legendary West Ham scout Wally St Pier and taken on as a club apprentice before dropping out a year later because, “I probably didn’t have enough to make it as a professional”.

So for Harris - and for the hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of fans like me in claret and blue Iron Maiden FC shirts complete with Hammers emblems - it was a double homecoming.

Massive screens promoting Iron Maiden surrounded the London Stadium and - in a clever move - a Hammers-style concert programme detailed the links between the band and club and the group’s love of football in general.

In one feature, Slaven Bilic revealed that growing up in Croatia he first learned of West Ham’s existence from the ‘Up the Irons!’ message on The Number of the Beast album. There’s little surprise that long-haired '90s midfielder Ian Bishop is a fan too.

And Julian Dicks told the 'matchday programme': “I can see some similarities between Maiden concerts and football fans back when I played - very passionate, great energy, they love their team or band, and they follow them all over the country and the world.”

The concert itself? An amazing, emotional evening as Maiden played a ‘greatest hits’ set to fans of all ages, including some of the numbers they debuted almost half a century ago in pubs around the East End.

And when I’m back in my seat next month I’ll remember Steve’s wise words: “Fans of West Ham have got a great sense of humour, but they have to - or we probably wouldn’t survive.”