West Ham Move On From Jaap Stam?

The Jaap Stam to West Ham rumours have been lingering around the club for a while now, despite the big Dutchman himself saying he'd had no contact at all from the East London club. While that denial hasn't totally stopped the rumour mill from turning, a few new faces have popped into the frame over the past week or so.

That includes today's story from Sky Sports that Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic is a new contender to be offered the role, if the club moves on from current boss Slaven Bilic. The problem with that one, just as the Stam rumour itself, is that Jokanovic might well end up a Premier League manager anyway, should Fulham make it through the play-offs (which they totally won't as we're winning them right?).

To make things even more amusing, guess who else has been linked with the job? Another play-off chasing manager perhaps? Why yes, yes they have. Huddersfield's David Wagner has seen his name pop up in connection with West Ham, which almost certainly means that next week we'll see Garry Monk's or Carlos Carvalhal also brought up.

Ultimately from a Reading point of view it's just nice to see names other than Stam talked about, yet if West Ham do come calling, would he stay? The news that the takeover of the club is nearing completion certainly strengthens our position and could convince Jaap to give it one more go even if we fail to win promotion. Yet he's spoken openly about wanting to manage at the highest level and if West Ham presented him with the right deal, I'm not sure you could forgive him for taking it.

Still, we've already lost one bloody manager to that club, so if they could just politely raid someone else instead, that would be lovely.