Transfer Deadline Day: It's weird because it's October

IronHerb

Well our last three signings have done that haven't they?

Fortuneseeker

ibl, I reckon the number of players we would retain is slightly more than two?

baracks_a_hammer

This is how I see it. We went into this window knowing that the centre of our defence and lb/lwb were ones that needed making better at first team level (not just squad depth level). For reasons known best to those at the club this has not happened (and won’t in the next 24 hours)

So instead, decent enough (looking) players are about to be bought or are being considered up front - completely different positions

This is where opinions become divided, in this forum and elsewhere. Should we have just kept the funds for use potentially again in 10 weeks for defensive reinforcements, or should we go ahead with the attacking players anyway as they seem to be within our means?

Whichever the view though, it is hard to summarise this window as being anything other than selling Grady and buying a more expensive and older version of him.

Yeoldhammer

Soucek and Bowen certainly have, jury is still out on Coufal.

2 / 3 of those played for us in the previous season where we still had Chronic deficiencies in the squad that have not been addressed.

I still believe and i do not mind being quoted on this in the future if someone wants to bookmark it but i guarantee not sorting out this left back problem will be a massive undoing of us further down the season.

This is coupled with the fact that our backup striker cannot play the lone striker role means that if Antonio gets injured unless Moyes changes the formation to a back 4 again to accommodate a second striker up top with Haller its not going to look pretty either in front of goal or at the back depending if he wants to keep his wingbacks and play Haller in a pointless lone striker role or go to a back 4 to accommodate Haller a partner in front of goal.

and Craig Dawson unfortunately is no where near good enough, even as a "he can do a job" backup defender, where our defence was all over the place last season and we sign the CB relegated with Watford who even Watford fans cheered his departure.

Most of, if not all of these points were raised before the window even opened.

a new LB / CB were priority. Coupled with the fact Diangana was going to be the guy we could hopefully see put on the Claret and Blue ahead of Anderson and offer us a complimentary winger and attacking force on the opposite side to Bowen and now neither Diangana or Anderson are here now.

ASLEFshrugged

Yeoldhammer said:

The club can equally loan / sell / pay up contracts and have done so in this window to sort that matter out.

I also believe if we are prepared to let young players go for dirt cheap Hugill / Ajeti / Diangana i see no problem in literally letting Cresswell or Masuaku walk away for free to get in someone better.

First you'd have to get Moyes to agree to it but Cresswell and Masuaku have contracts until 2023 and 2024, we'd have to get them to agree to leave then pay them off.

Somehow I don't see that happening any time soon.

Yeoldhammer

according to Sky Benrahma having a medical now before signing a 5 year deal.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

Yeoldhammer said:

Soucek and Bowen certainly have, jury is still out on Coufal.

2 / 3 of those played for us in the previous season where we still had Chronic deficiencies in the squad that have not been addressed.

I still believe and i do not mind being quoted on this in the future if someone wants to bookmark it but i guarantee not sorting out this left back problem will be a massive undoing of us further down the season.

This is coupled with the fact that our backup striker cannot play the lone striker role means that if Antonio gets injured unless Moyes changes the formation to a back 4 again to accommodate a second striker up top with Haller its not going to look pretty either in front of goal or at the back depending if he wants to keep his wingbacks and play Haller in a pointless lone striker role or go to a back 4 to accommodate Haller a partner in front of goal.

and Craig Dawson unfortunately is no where near good enough, even as a "he can do a job" backup defender, where our defence was all over the place last season and we sign the CB relegated with Watford who even Watford fans cheered his departure.

Most of, if not all of these points were raised before the window even opened.

a new LB / CB were priority. Coupled with the fact Diangana was going to be the guy we could hopefully see put on the Claret and Blue ahead of Anderson and offer us a complimentary winger and attacking force on the opposite side to Bowen and now neither Diangana or Anderson are here now.

But CM and LB is a priority for "us"

Any CM would've been 3rd choice behind Rice and Soucek who are guaranteed starters, so unlikely to get a lot of quality whod be happy to sit on the bench

And LB id have made a priority, but we have 2 players who can play there with Johnson who's impressed in his brief spells there, so hard to justify getting a 4th LB

We haven't even bid for a single LB which i think shows they don't have the same opinion as us, but we've got a RB so obviously the club thought it was a bigger priority

And Benrahma is arguably an upgrade over Diangana and Anderson

I wouldn't have swapped them but I'm a hammer fans so I'm obviously going to be biased to our own players, but Benrahma had the better season and he's had 2 compared to Dianganas 1

IronHerb

Benrahma having his medical now according to Ex.

Fortuneseeker

Our defence conceded 62 goals last season only Aston Villa & the three relegated teams leaked more. A LB & CH would have been upgrades on what we already have & with what happens at other teams if a better player arrives one of the reserves usually realises their time is up and leaves that is if they really want to carry on playing first team football. Dawson is a stop gap, well I hope is, until we find a new Centre Half. Benrahma is he really needed? Whoever decided to buy Haller must have watched him & seen he plays best with some support which we aren't able to offer him so the saga goes on until we probably sell him as we nearly did in the last window to Marseille if the rumours are to be believed but they couldn't raise the funds.

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes

Give me Benrahma over a third LB or another back up CM in the squad any day.

A maverick who can excite me is the only thing that makes supporting West Ham bearable.

Even if we had 5 LBs 4 of them would be injured most of the time anyway.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

Fortuneseeker said:

Our defence conceded 62 goals last season only Aston Villa & the three relegated teams leaked more. A LB & CH would have been upgrades on what we already have & with what happens at other teams if a better player arrives one of the reserves usually realises their time is up and leaves that is if they really want to carry on playing first team football. Dawson is a stop gap, well I hope is, until we find a new Centre Half. Benrahma is he really needed? Whoever decided to buy Haller must have watched him & seen he plays best with some support which we aren't able to offer him so the saga goes on until we probably sell him as we nearly did in the last window to Marseille if the rumours are to be believed but they couldn't raise the funds.

But defending is mostly to do with the tactics/systems then it is to do with individual ability, hence why world class defenders get exposed with teams who play high up the pitch but the ones who sit deep look a million dollars

All I know is we have back to back clean sheets and the second fewest goals conceded, so its not all doom and gloom and we aren't likely to let in 62 goals again this season

yoyo

The fans have always loved a flair player and if Benrahma can live up to his recent performances then he'll be on his way to becoming a cult hero. The only question Mark is can he do it at the highest level? I look forward to seeing him.

Fortuneseeker

WHU, I've noted the date & time.

Cuz1

yoyo said:

The fans have always loved a flair player and if Benrahma can live up to his recent performances then he'll be on his way to becoming a cult hero. The only question Mark is can he do it at the highest level? I look forward to seeing him.

To be fair as I’ve said I’d sooner we get the players we need in but if it his going to happen let’s hope he settles like Antonio and Bowen to a lesser extent have then I won’t be as disappointed lol

IronHerb

But I take it Cuz that if he comes off it's a Sullivan buy and if he fails it will be a Moyes buy. 😂

Cuz1

I’m sure I read somewhere on sky sports that moyes wanted to spend elsewhere so yes your right lol 😂 😂

Whitehorsehammer

Lots of talk about the number of goals we conceded lat season, we had Roberto, please don’t forget the damage he did. He has gone so let’s look at goals conceded after the restart and this season. It’s not all gloom.

alderz

Lots of people have made lots of really good comments that I wholeheartedly agree with. But I can’t get past the Diangana sale, and I can’t get past the apparent fact that the club feel cresswell can play LWB. nothing anyone can say is going to make me happy about those decisions.

ianbishoplegend

Well, I for one at going to enjoy the ride. A fantastic flair player at west ham again. I would swap that for another season or two of Cresswell. Didn’t he have one of his best seasons with Payet?

Cuz1

Is winston Reid on his way he didn’t play for Kansas earlier today

OutcastLondoner

I agree with everyone.
But not Alderz.

IronHerb

What are the odds of that? 😊

alderz

OutcastLondoner said:

I agree with everyone.
But not Alderz.

That seems rude

Yeoldhammer

Benrahma unfortunately comes with the whole Algerian crowd much like Hernandez and Mexico. Literal Facebook spammers that hate everything not related to their national hero.

yoyo

Does that matter? As long as he does the business and doesn't upset the apple cart within the set up then I'm not bothered what the sado's on social media do.

Yeoldhammer

a tiny bit, i think i remember a Bobby Moore Fund post by West Ham on facebook being bombarded with negativity because it did not feature or have anything Hernandez related.

BubblesNeverDies

Regarding Hernandez, I was recently talking to a guy from Mexico who, in his opinion, was the "luckiest player ever", and "totally overrated".

ASLEFshrugged

alderz said:

Lots of people have made lots of really good comments that I wholeheartedly agree with. But I can’t get past the Diangana sale, and I can’t get past the apparent fact that the club feel cresswell can play LWB. nothing anyone can say is going to make me happy about those decisions.

That might make sense if Cresswell was being asked to play LWB but so far he's played LB twice and and CB three times. As long as Masuaku stays fit its not something I'm going to worry about.

I got past Diangana the moment the third goal went in against Wolves.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

I am still going to be upset about Diangana as I always prefer we back our own

But the chances are we probably have rose (claret) tinted specs on when assessing his ability

I think Moyes likes wingers who cut in off the flanks instead of running the line as the wing backs do that already, so maybe Benrahma/Fornals is a better fit for this formation

For me, if we beat Wolves/Leicester 7-0 given how bad we've been since we left the Boleyn Ground, its hard to be too disheartened

Also WBA are a sure fire bet to go down, so maybe we could get him back

alderz

ASLEFshrugged said:

alderz said:

Lots of people have made lots of really good comments that I wholeheartedly agree with. But I can’t get past the Diangana sale, and I can’t get past the apparent fact that the club feel cresswell can play LWB. nothing anyone can say is going to make me happy about those decisions.

That might make sense if Cresswell was being asked to play LWB but so far he's played LB twice and and CB three times. As long as Masuaku stays fit its not something I'm going to worry about.

As long as one man can cover the position for the entire season without missing any football at all, it will be fine. You must recognise that that is a risk?

I know where Cresswell has played all season, I’ve watched the games and I look at the stats as much as you do. But I think it’s pretty clear from my post, and most posts by anyone on this subject, that I am referring to him being the only LWB backup.