As one would expect, West Ham have done all they can to downplay reports of a rift between winger Mohammed Kudus and head coach Julen Lopetegui.
Claret & Hugh spoke directly to the club this morning, who were keen to stress that the reported row had been blown out of proportion. In fact, the Hammers have been doing everything within their power to limit the damage caused by yesterday’s revelations that the manager and player had to be ‘separated’ following an angry exchange.
Today has seen attempts to calm the situation in the public domain, and one can only hope that the same is happening at the training ground. Whilst I don’t blame the club at all for attempting to control and steer the narrative into something more positive, it will probably take Mohammed Kudus being selected to start the Premier League game against Ipswich on Saturday to truly settle the matter.
In many respects, the West Ham boss has little choice in this matter. Even if there genuinely was no conflict between the pair, if he believed there was a better option than Kudus to start the game, there is no way Lopetegui could leave him out of the starting line-up.
Anything other than the Ghanaian appearing as the first name on the team sheet is going to create a media storm that will be completely unhealthy for West Ham. So let’s just hope the pair have genuinely patched up their differences, but the proof of the pudding will have to wait until the weekend.