Guest Post by Neil Clack

No doubt all this Sakho business will end up in the High Court, where a combination of random has-been 1980s coaches like Peter Shreeves and Graham Taylor, accompanied by Henry Winter of the Daily Telegraph, will convince some geriatric judge with a rugby-background that Senegal would have won the African Nations Cup hands down if Sakho had played in it. We’ll have to pay £30 million to Senegal in compensation, as well as the £20 million to Bristol City who would have gone on to win the FA Cup had Sakho not come on and scored against them.

Well, after sitting through last week’s annual non-event at Anfield, things have certainly been a lot more interesting off the pitch than on it over the last seven days. It all began to look a bit ominous when the team was announced at Liverpool. Many fans around me, in the Essex pub I frequent to watch the away games live, asked the obvious question,“If we’ve got such a cast-iron case, as Sam had claimed in the papers the day before, why isn’t Sakho on the team-sheet?”

Another thing I don’t really get either is that, considering how many West Ham fans all over the forums knew the FIFA rules, even before the match at Bristol City, how come the club didn’t?

Or did West Ham know the rules, but just decided to chance their luck? ’We’re West Ham and we do what we want, so up-yours FIFA!’.

Now the Bristol City forums are baying for blood. And cash. “What about the money from the replay at Upton Park that would have happened had Sakho not come on and scored?”,they rage. And if they’d won the replay, “what about the money from the 5th round match at West Brom”. The Bristol City board probably feels obliged to react to fan sentiment and this could escalate, ending up with Henry Winter, Bobby Gould and Ron Atkinson explaining to Judge know-nothing about football how Bristol City would have gone on to win back to back promotions to the Premier League if only Sakho had not come on.

The disappointment experienced by 13.5m Senegalese nationals will need to be compensated too.

It does take an almost inconceivable level of institutional incompetence to do this three times, and with a different spin on each. Omoyimni was cup tied, Tevez was owned by a third party and Sakho was barred due to international rules.

And what’s this bit all about? From the Guardian, “The club, who omitted the forward for Saturday’s 2-0 Premier League defeat at Liverpool having been made aware of the Fifa investigation, had been so unnerved by the controversy that they had attempted to placate Senegal via an intermediary”.

It’s at times like this that we have to look on the lighter side of West Ham, and the good news for all Carlton Cole fans like me is that he’s still here; his move to WBA having broken down at the last moment. For one horrible hour or so on Monday night, even I really did start to consider that an era may be coming to an end, but I should have known better – it was just another one of those ruses from Carlton that he likes to tease us with every now and then. Finally, as always, he stayed, this time due to Tottenham Chairman David Levy putting a block on Adebayour’s loan deal (Levy can’t seriously see us rival top 4 challengers, surely? – it looked more like spitefulness over the Olympic Stadium if you ask me?).

Whatever, Carlton’s here to stay. And we can now tick off the name of Mauro Zarate on that long list of strikers that he’s seen off in the last 9 years. (see here for the definitive list – 4th paragraph down)

If Andy Carroll’s previous injury history is anything to go, his reckless Gazza-type lunge that only served to injure himself at Liverpool, will probably keep him out for the rest of the season now, and with Sakho’s life-time ban from all football imminent, and Valencia’s lack of interest now that his head’s been turned by Chelsea, it all leads to one thing – Carlton rising once again to become our number 1 striker.

So once again, I urge you to get behind our cult-hero, the man who is destined to wear the West Ham shirt forever and ever. Let’s hear it sung with gusto on Sunday, ‘Cole – always believe in your soul’.