Boleyn up for auction

Just donated a signed copy of Goodbye to Boleyn to the Newham Bookshop's raffle and auction for the Grenfell Tower residents. Boleyn is sitting proudly alongside a signed copy of Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run memoir, a signed dvd of Ken Loach's I, Daniel Blake and a signed copy of J K Rowling's The Casual Vacancy. Place your bid by email to info@newhambooks.co.uk or by Twitter to @NewhamBookshop, mentioning the item and your contact details. Full details on the Newham Bookshop's website. All proceeds go to the Kensington and Chelsea Foundation charity.

This is the Enner

Enner Valencia has joined Mexican side Tigres for a fee thought to be around £6 million. He had his moments, but for a £12 million striker he never scored enough goals and often seemed too fragile for he Premier League and more at home on the wing. 

Valencia started really well in 2014-15, scoring a 30-yard screamer at Hull and making many of Sakho's goals, as under Sam Allardyce the Irons reached 4th position at Christmas. But then Enner managed to injure himself stepping on a broken teacup, as you do, and on his return was often forced to play alone up front as injuries hit. The Hammers slumped to 12th. He only scored four league goals that season and just another four in the first Bilic season, though they were noticeable braces against Bournemouth and Manchester City. 

He scored three times while on loan at Everton last season, but sadly his stay in England will be best remembered for Enner escaping on an ambulance cart while being chased by the Ecuador rozzers in pursuit of child maintenance money. 

He seemed to score virtually every game on international duty for Ecuador, but he's yet another example of how buying a player who has a good World Cup (as he did in 2014) can often be a mistake.

Will Arnie say 'hasta la vista' to Stoke?

Some action at last. West Ham have had a £15 million offer for Stoke's Marco Arnautovic rejected and the player has apparently asked for a transfer. Though just as it seems someone actually wants to join us, Arnie's got injured in a pre-season friendly for the Potters. The Stoke winger come striker would be an interesting signing. He's netted quite a few screamers for Stoke, but doesn't seem to score enough tap-ins (he scored seven goals last season). So there's room for improvement, but the City fans seem to like him and the big Austrian is a proven performer in the Premier League with his own "Arnie!" chant. He'd certainly add a bit of size and skill to our forward line. And the latest news is that the Hammers are in for 'keeper Joe Hart as well…

Boleyn on the beach

Thanks to reader Ryan Andrews who tweeted this picture of his holiday reading. For those who still wish to remember a stadium where a motorised stretcher car wasn't necessary, Goodbye to Boleyn is available from Amazon (see panel to the right) and all good bookshops. Lay back on the beach, ponder how we managed to win at Man City, Liverpool and Arsenal and reminisce about the days when Andy Carroll was fit and Ken's Cafe was packed. And then wonder if we'll ever sign anyone again.

Bilic opts out of £25m Iheanacho deal

According to last night's Evening Standard Slaven Bilic has opted out of a deal for Manchester City's Kelechi Iheanacho, deciding that £25million is too much to pay for a player with lots of potential but limited experience. He's made just 46 league appearances, many of those as a sub. Now it looks like Leicester are going to nab him. 

It seems like David Sullivan had got quite a way with setting up this deal, though you can see Slaven's point. £20 million might have been a fairer price for the young striker, but £25 million is a hell of a lot for a kid who has thrived as an impact sub with a Champions League team but might not be so effective if he was the main striker in a mid-ranking team. Really it comes down to just how much potential Tony Henry and Slaven Bilic felt the kid had. But let's hope there's another option lined up quickly or once again WHU will look desperate and end up with a Zaza-type panic signing.

West Ham sell out

West Ham announced today that the club has sold all 52,000 season tickets at the London Stadium. Whatever the merits of the new ground, it's proved successful in terms of bums on seats so far and proves just how loyal West Ham fans are. There's only going to be 5000 tickets that aren't season tickets and around half of those will be for away fans. So the revenue's in and there's even less excuse for dithering in the transfer market…

Striker light: are West Ham pursuing the wrong kind of striker?

West Ham spent much of last summer pursuing strikers who were always unlikely to sign, such as Carlos Bacca, Alexandre Lazazette and Michy Batyshuayi. A similar pattern is emerging this summer. The Daily Telegraph reported that the Irons had record £20 million-plus bids rejected for Cologne's Anthony Modeste (not the first time West Ham would have fielded a Modeste strike force) and Villareal's Cedric Bakumbu. There are also rumours of interest in ex-Man United forward Javier Hernandez and Arsenal's Olivier Giroud — though again Everton look likely to below West Ham out of the River Lea on that one. 

It seems West Ham are still trying to buy established star strikers when we can't even offer European football. Surely a better approach would be to go for up and coming talent from Europe or the Championship or younger PL strikers from smaller teams such as Joshua King or Andre Gray. The most successful WHU purchase of a striker in recent years, until injury struck, was that of Diafra Sakho who cost £3 million and was relatively unknown. We've had all last season to formulate a clear plan but it still seems that West Ham are going scattergun for any big names who might to be on the market.