Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson was full of praise for West Ham's recruitment policy and pointed to the Hammer's as a model to follow for other teams wanting to get into Europe.
The former England manager was asked about how teams can break the monopoly at the top of the Premier League and pointed to West Ham's achievements this season as an example to the rest of the league.
Going into the weekend's fixtures the Hammer's sit in fifth place just three points off the Champions League spots and are currently looking down on reigning champions Liverpool and two London rivals Tottenham and Arsenal.
Hodgson has put West Ham's fine season down to one major factor: "I think it’s recruitment," he said. "I don’t know that the West Ham situation contradicts it too much, I’d almost say the opposite.
"All they’ve done is found two players [Vladimir Coufal and Thomas Soucek] who were absolutely the right types they were looking for, and then they’ve added a third, Lingard, who everyone knows about but who has fallen upon harder times than might be expected at Man United.
"Those three players added to what they have, have already made a huge difference."
Hodgson let on that Palace were interested in Lingard when he became available for a loan move in January but congratulated West Ham for getting the deal done.
"It’s hats off to the recruitment and to the decision making because with Jesse Lingard it was clear that Man United were perhaps contemplating letting him go out on loan.
"All clubs know about Jesse Lingard and know about his qualities I think. So we were all at the table with a chance of competing. So I think it’s been very good recruitment and very good management."
The Palace manager is hoping to emulate West Ham's success in the transfer market insisting that gems such as the Hammers Czech duo are still out there to be found.
"But in answer to the question what can we do [to break the monopoly of the big teams], I think we can take heart that with our recruitment there are still players out there that maybe not everyone has picked up on," he said.
"Maybe a Coufal or a Soucek, maybe they are out there somewhere and we can pick them up for the sort of sum of money that Palace might have to spend."
Hodgson added that as well as recruitment bringing through your own players is key to success pointing to Manchester United right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka that came through Palace's system.
"We can hope that maybe we can find another Aaron Wan-Bissaka along the way because they are the type of nuggets that get thrown up all the time."
