Football Daily | West Ham want promotion – so it’s time to call in an understated club legend

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now! While Football Daily hasn’t actually seen much of West Ham this season, we’ve noted enough of their results to presume they were doing OK in their attempt to bounce back to the Premier League after relegation. Less than a third

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now?

Sign up now! While Football Daily hasn’t actually seen much of West Ham this season, we’ve noted enough of their results to presume they were doing OK in their attempt to bounce back to the Premier League after relegation. Less than a third of the way through the Championship season under Nuno Espírito Santo, they’d already spanked six without reply past both Wrexham and Lincoln, while scoring three or more in wins over Wolves, Derby and Bolton.

However, it turns out that of the 13 matches they’ve played in a league that is famously difficult to get out of (unless you were Sheffield Wednesday last season ), they have actually lost three times and currently sit in eighth place, a whopping six points off leaders Middlesbrough. Given the context of such an unbridgeable chasm, it is small wonder West Ham fans woke up to news that Nuno had been unceremoniously bounced out of the London Stadium with a P45 in hand. While my heart aches for Jesús de Miguel, who has died after a collision with the Andorra goalkeeper Jesús Owono, I shudder to think the trauma that shall haunt Owono for the rest of his life.

I do hope and pray the wider community understands and extends their support in his recuperation” – Krishna Moorthy. As an upgrade to Steve Plever’s suggestion of paper thin shirts [ Monday’s letters ]: how about Velcro shirts? If the bit comes off, it is a shirt pull and the offender has the honour of putting it back in place before being awarded a yellow card” – Mike Harold.

To dive or not to dive seems to be biggest dilemma in the Premier League right now. It’s not. The problem with today’s highly paid professionals is that they simply have no panache at all when they go down.

I recall watching Francis Lee pick up the ball on the halfway line at a mud soaked Maine Road in the late 1960s, he put his head down and headed for goal, he was determined, he was single minded. He was 30 yards from goal, he was in full flow. He was tackled from behind and then he really took off, he grew wings, he soared.

I swear he landed in the penalty area over 10 yards away. He dragged himself to his feet and without a semblance of a smile smashed the well-deserved penalty, with a very heavy leather ball straight at the centre of the goal at over 70 mph. The goalkeeper, obviously no fool, simply dived out of the way.

The press christened him “Lee Won Pen” He was my hero. That man had panache, he had style” – Myles Flynn. I am interested to read that Aston Villa considered the words of Jamie Carragher “unacceptable insults” .

It would obviously help matters if they could publish examples of acceptable insults” – Rupert Jeffery. This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions .

Continue reading...