For all of the hot air around Marko Arnautovic, West Ham remain in talks with Celta Vigo over Maxi Gómez, whose contract contains a £43.5m release clause. The Spanish club, however, are battling relegation from La Liga and want to keep the 22-year-old. Intriguingly, one possibility could be a deal being done in this window before loaning him back until the end of the season. Any deal would eclipsing the club-record £36m they paid Lazio for Felipe Anderson in the summer. Gomez, part of the Uruguay squad at last summer’s World Cup, joined Celta in 2017 on a five-year deal.
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A heartening pre-match tale, courtesy of none other than Jesse Lingard. A bunch of AFC Wimbledon fans were in with a shot of winning £500 in a penalty shootout on Soccer AM this morning, only for the Manchester United winger – supposedly giving them a helping hand – to miss a crucial spot-kick, leaving the supporters out of pocket. But Lingard made a bee-line for the group of fans after the show, and promptly handed over £600 of his own money in the Sky studios car park. Lovely.
Team news news: so, no Marko Arnautovic for West Ham, but Manuel Pellegrini names a strong side nevertheless, including Javier Hernandez and Andy Carroll. Declan Rice is rested, on the bench alongside Felipe Anderson. The former Charlton winger Scott Wagstaff starts for AFC Wimbledon, as does the Bournemouth loanee Aaron Ramsdale.
Team news!
AFC Wimbledon: Ramsdale, Watson, Thomas, Oshilaja, McDonald, Nightingale, Wordsworth, Connolly, Pinnock, Appiah, Wagstaff
Subs: McDonnell, Sibbick, Garratt, Trotter, Soares, Jervis, Pigott
West Ham United: Adrian, Antonio, Diop, Ogbonna, Masuaku, Noble, Obiang, Snodgrass, Diangana, Hernandez, Carroll
Subs: Fabianski, Fredericks, Rice, Coventry, Holland, Anderson, Perez
Referee: Anthony Taylor
Preamble
This one has the scent of a proper upset. After near-misses at New Meadow and the Riverside earlier, AFC Wimbledon, at the wrong end of League One, up against a Jeykll and Hyde West Ham United – a team dining at the top table – has the makings of a cup classic. This is AFC Wimbledon’s first FA Cup fourth-round outing since their reformation in 2002 – though they have lost all their previous two FA Cup meetings with Premier League opposition (2014-15 v Liverpool and 2017-18 v Tottenham Hotspur).
“I think going head-to-head with a Premier League team you’re going to come unstuck nine times out of 10,” says manager Wally Downes. “So you can’t go gung-ho. But I’ve never been involved in a football match when one of the teams didn’t have an opportunity.” The history does not bode well for West Ham either, having been eliminated from two of their last four FA Cup ties against League One teams, including a 2-0 at Wigan Athletic last season. In terms of team news, the talented Wimbledon teenager Anthony Hartigan is suspended, while Adrian will start in goal for the visitors. Marko Arnautovic was not expected to be involved, though it will be interesting to see if Manuel Pellegrini does throw the forward, fresh from a remarkable U-turn after throwing his toys of the pram, in at Kingsmeadow as something of a punishment.
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