West Ham’s international stars have been making headlines, delivering standout performances for their countries during the break. Confidence is high among West Ham’s internationals, and that could translate into strong form when they return to club action. West Ham fans will be hoping their international success is just the start of a big end to the season.
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00:00Now, West Ham's international stars have been making headlines delivering standout performances
00:07for their countries during the break. With key players shining on the big stage, it's
00:13a major boost for Graham Potter as the Hammers look to finish the season strongly. I spoke
00:18to James Jones of London World about the impact these performances could have, confidence
00:24being high among West Ham's internationals and that they could translate into strong
00:29form when they return to club action. With European qualification not in sight this
00:34season, Potter will be hoping his star players will bring that back in terms of next year
00:41and the London Stadium. West Ham fans will be hoping their international success is just
00:47the start of a big end to the season.
00:53So James, looking at West Ham in terms of the international players who went away, let's
00:58just start with an attacking angle on it with Gerard Bowen, Evan Ferguson, Mohamed
01:04Kudus as well. What can you tell us about each of those and their impact for their countries
01:10over this recent international break?
01:15The key thing that stood out for West Ham fans is that two players that really need
01:20an injection of confidence going into the final stage of the season both got on the
01:24score sheet for their countries. Kudus scored for Ghana and Evan Ferguson got on the score
01:29sheet for the Republic of Ireland. So from a confidence point of view, that's given West
01:35Ham fans a lot of hope that both of those players can come in, come back to West Ham
01:41after an international break and go into the last, was it, nine games of the season with
01:46a lot of confidence and really improve their form. Kudus is one that really stands out
01:50given that it was the last international break or maybe the one before that where Ghana had
01:58failed to qualify for AFCON and he took the brunt of the criticism and the blame in his
02:04country for that. There was a lot of speculation that that affected his mood and his confidence.
02:12He came back from one of those international breaks and was immediately sent off against
02:16Tottenham for scuffling with a few of their players and got a five-match ban for it. And a
02:21lot of people were like, well, maybe that's his frustrations about what had happened on
02:25international duty has kind of boiled over into his club football. Whether that's right or wrong,
02:29obviously, we don't know for sure, but that was a speculation. So now he's gone away on this
02:34international break and he's coming away having scored a goal and been influential for his
02:39country. And the hope is that that will then translate into his club football because he's
02:43not been the Mohamed Kudus that we fell in love with last season. He was mercurial last season.
02:50He was unbelievable in his first year in England and he just hasn't replicated that this year.
02:54So hopefully that will give him the boost that he needs and West Ham needs. And then Ferguson
02:59going away with Ireland and getting on the score sheet, he's not had a lot of game time since
03:03coming on loan from Brighton. No one really understands why, given that we've been crying
03:10out for a striker to play in the striker role and he's still been limited to the last five minutes
03:15of games for his first four or five appearances for the club. So hopefully, again, that gives him
03:19the confidence to and maybe even growing part of the confidence to go, OK, well, he's ready to start
03:24now. He's scored for his country. He's ready to start scoring goals for West Ham. Jared Bowen,
03:30probably a little bit disappointing in his start against Latvia, hauled off just after the hour.
03:35And then obviously he was replaced by Ebrich Eze, who then came on and scored and assisted and
03:41sort of had far more of an impact than Bowen did. I think for all three of them,
03:45I think that all three of them can look back at it and go, yeah, a productive international break
03:49for sure. And then just on Edson Alvarez, a real leader in terms of West Ham as well,
03:56but then Mexico in that stage. I mean, obviously, that's a country that are so passionate about
04:02their players in terms of where they play as well, at the club level. I mean, he had a great
04:08impact and a real positive international break as well. Yeah, I mean, he's captain of Mexico and
04:17they've won the CONCACAF Nations League for the first time. So he was there lifting the trophy
04:22the other day for Mexico. And again, for me, that's a great positive. If you've got players
04:29going away with international duty and being successful and winning trophies, especially in
04:34the middle of a season, you can't ask for much more than that because he will, like the others,
04:39he will come back, I'm sure, rejuvenated and ready to go.