Teenage striker Leroy Williams has had his contract terminated “by mutual consent”.

The player was given a professional contract last year as he burst (goal scoring) onto the scene at the start of last season. It became more and more obvious that he was losing his way, however, as his appearances in the first team squad grew fewer and fewer, as the rumours of his lack of match fitness and weight problems increased.

This news comes as little surprise, after he was left off the squad photo shoot this week.

The “Eatsleep Sport” site is reporting that West ham are preparing a bid for Walsall striker Matt Fryatt.

It is believed Hammers boss Alan Pardew kept tabs on the striker last season and thinks Fryatt can play at a higher level.
The site is a new one to me and I don’t know how reliable a source it is, but it suggests the London outfit could be set to offer £1million up front for the Saddlers frontman, who is expected to open contract talks with Paul Merson next week, with further money aavailableif he breaks into the England first team.

Meanwhile, the Evening Mail is now saying that ex Villa, Liverpool and Coventry man Steve Staunton will be signing on a non contract basis from Monday.

Quite how this aquisition fits in with the team is difficult to see, given that Staunton himself has said that he cannot play left back any more and we already have four centre backs in the squad. Maybe another departure may be imminent?

The big rumour circulating last night was that youngsters Sean Platt and Taiwo Atieno are to go out on loan.

Atieno, of course, has gone out on loan before, but the current rumour is that they are both bound for Kidderminster. This would make some kind of sense, in that it would be easy to keep track of their progress there, in the same way as it was with Kris Taylor’s loan at Burton Albion.

Stuart Watkiss is known to be concerned about his strike force and said a couple of days ago:

“We’re speaking to a couple of players over the course of the next few days and hopefully we’ll be in a position to do something soon.”

The only surprise for me, should this turn out to be the case is that Atieno’s loan may leave us a little short of cover up front, especially with so many rumours also circulating about Matt Fryatt’s future.