I fear that getting Josh Cullen back was never much more than a pipe dream. We still need four quality loanees at least as good as him, but it's looking pretty certain now that Cullen himself won't be one of those four.
If you were Josh Cullen you would stay at West Ham. If he was not getting a run of games, then ask for a loan move in January.
Roland's attitude will probably be "Why do you need more signings? You've got those two players so play them. They can learn as they play here rather than going out on loan". And of course if either one shows any promise at all RD will sell him.
Ben Marshall has just been released by Narwich … just the sort of player we need... but he was at Millwall second half of last season and a Massive Club are sniffing around.