How long does novelty last? For a new song, perhaps six or seven plays. For a child blagging a day off school sick, somewhere around lunchtime tends to be the mark. And if you have just bought one of those fancy, garden pizza ovens, probably until the first time you try to clean it.
For West Ham and their European adventure, however, it seems the bar is set at a lofty two-and-a-half years. For Thursday night, David Moyes’s side go back to Black, returning to the fringes of the German forest to once again meet SC Freiburg, the first repeat opposition of their three successive continental tours.
