Wednesday’s Cup of Joe Cole: News and Links

West Ham Links!

• Here are the most expensive transfers from this January’s transfer window. West Ham United made the cut twice, going in both directions.
• We didn’t see Daniel Sturridge move to East London, and that’s okay. The rumors for a summer move have already began to take over the internet. If the lad can stay healthy, he’s one of the best in England.

• April 8th will give us a chance to see two brothers square off at London Stadium. Andre Ayew’s younger brother, Jordan Ayew, joined Swansea in the final hours of the transfer period. Take that, Bob Bradley.
• Demba Ba was probably closer than we realize to being reunited with the club. Bilic admitted the interest was there but after an honest conversation with the player, he declined.

World Football Links!

• No one wanted to pay the £20m fee Liverpool put on Mamadou Sakho, but someone was willing to pay the £100k per week salary. Enter, Crystal Palace. Big Sam Allardyce is looking to avoid relegation and the giant defender will certainly aid in that campaign.
• Was anyone busier than Hull City this transfer window? Marco Silva brought in Oumar Niasse, Evandro, Omar Elabdellaoui and Lazar Markovic, Andrea Ranocchia, Alfred N'Diaye and Kamil Grosicki. Basically, Silva bought a new team.
• Sutton United has a backup goalkeeper who is a 45 year old behemoth of a man. Wayne Shaw, an absolute legend of a lad, is an absolute inspiration to me. The dream’s not dead! Oh, and he’s also happens to be in the 5th round of the FA Cup.

• Lastly, big shout out to the lads who play for these two teams. Romanian side Astra Giurgiu and Pogon Szczecin of Poland suspected the ref of attempting to fix the game and intentionally missed penalty shots in order to preserve the purity of the sport.