Will the London Stadium start to feel like home?

It now seems there will be full crowds at the London Stadium next season, the third wave of Covid permitting. One thing I noticed at the West Ham versus Southampton game was that the squared off ends did make a difference and made the stadium feel a little more intimate. 

It's now five years since WHU left Upton Park. It still hurts, but after a year and a half without any live football fans are going to be noisy and glad to be back in any sort of stadium. And West Ham will be returning as a side that finished sixth and made it into the Europa League. We've never had a successful team at the London Stadium before so it should make a difference. Next season will feel like a new start and the corporate bowl might finally start to feel like home.

Ain't no apology like Lanzini

It's good that Manuel Lanzini has apologised for breaking Tier 4 rules at Christmas after being pictured alongside Spurs' Erik Lamela, Giovani Lo Celso and Sergio Reguilon. He tweeted:" I want to apologise for a bad mistake and I take full responsibility for my actions. I know people have made difficult sacrifices to stay safe and I should be setting a better example." 

Covid-19 has been hard on young people and it's difficult to tell footballers on £100k a week what to do, but players need to learn that they are part of wider society and have responsibilities. Hopefully Moyes has used the hairdryer on him as it could also have endangered the rest of the squad. And as for fraternising with Tottenham players — there's certainly no excuse for that!

Players and board need to take a pay cut

Newcastle, owned by billionaire Mike Ashley, and Tottenham (where chairman Daniel Levy received £7m last year) have both rightly received flak for furloughing their staff and relying on the government scheme to pay 80 per cent of the staff's wages. Football is awash with money at the top and although match revenues have been hit it would chime with the mood of the country if the players and directors took a voluntary pay cut to see the club through to whenever games are resumed. 

Credit to Bournemouth's Eddie Howe for being the first PL manager to say he's taking a salary cut. At West Ham David Moyes could do the same while Karren Brady could certainly get by on less than her £1m-plus salary. David Sullivan and David Gold could perhaps announce they are taking reduced loan repayments this year to help the club. This would be the right thing to do and good PR, which the board certainly needs. 

The PFA are resisting efforts to cut wages at the moment, but as Paul MacInnes suggests in the Guardian, they should get together and decide among themselves to take a reduction at a time of national emergency. For a footballer it's not that difficult to scrape by on £80k a week instead of £100k a week. There should be more than enough to keep the people who sell us tickets and run the offices employed.