Over the weekend I had to chuckle as the newspaper pundits were tipping West Ham to win the Div 1 title this coming season (which starts Saturday) and quoting bookies' odds of 3-1 favourites. If you're a betting man you should run away from those odds as if they were a scary man with a very big knife. Fourteen players have left the squad since last season to be replaced by just three, and according to reports our two main strikers are to be sold this week: Kanoute off to Spurs and, this just in, Jermaine Defoe to be bought by Man Utd for £10m.

So I reckon we're more likely to be in a relegation scrap than the promotion shake-up. Still, you have to laugh about the Tottscum. There was me wondering who on earth we could offload an injury-prone showpony like Kanoute to and along came that tactical genius Glenn Hoddle to trundle him off to White Hart Lame...