The January Transfer Window

OldCastleSwift

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years said:

In a world affected by COVID, a club our size spending £20mil on a back up is a lot

But do they need to viewed as a back up? I don't like the idea of buying someone specifically to be a back up; I'd rather we signed players that were direct competition. If for arguments sake we signed Alex Kral for £20m (not sure we'd get him for that BTW), he would push SouDec a lot harder for their place than either Noble or Coventry. Plus it would allow more rotation without losing so much quality.

I do take your point about our more recent deals though. There can be no doubt that Soucek and Coufal in particular have been huge bargains and does give me some hope, but as baracks alludes to, the general management of this window so far as been very poor, IMO.

Dodger58

We should not be buying in anyone for 'backup'. we should only spend to improve the team. The 'backup' should come from our existing squad and the Academy. How else will they get experience or we get to see whether they can make the step up.

Buying just to fill the squad should not happen. Look what happened when we took that approach to cover for our last European adventure - we bought players as squad players who were not good enough. It took a long time to remove the debris at huge cost.

So I'm very much in favour of only buying in players to compete with the first team incumbents. The squad covers most, use the Academy where is cannot.

Having said that we clearly must get in a striker, but equally one that is capable of contributing to the first team!

baracks_a_hammer

It’s not the complete story to start quoting Antonio’s goals to games ratio unless you also factor in those games where he would have played but couldn’t due to injury. This is very relevant IMO as we are a team with only one striker, and it is a converted one to boot.

Ravel49

Fortuneseeker

SSN reporting Willian Jose is joining Wolves so that probably means that any chance, slim as it was, that we were going to be able to sign Oyarzabal is now nil?

alderz

I’ve never even heard of half of the players we’re linked with, and I usually at least know names through football manager

IronHerb

Depends who links us I suppose. Never heard of Jose or Oyarzabal.

Dodger58

He’s a golfer isn’t he?

ASLEFshrugged

Irish golfer

Jose O'Yarzabal

claretandbluesky

I thought he was the singer with Tears for Fears

alderz

I know this isn’t going to be popular, and I don’t know why I’m saying it now, particularly as he didn’t even play tonight, but oh well.

If we do lose Rice one day, I would not be strongly opposed to Scott McTominay as a replacement. He does a lot of what Rice does, but he’s not quite as good, which - if the argument is that Rice should be / will end up playing at the highest level - would probably be about right for us as a replacement.

IronHerb

But if a player such as McTominay wanted to come to West Ham then Rice wouldn't want to leave in the first place as we would be something special.

OutcastLondoner

I don't think we're trying to get back-up, we need to be looking for compe

IronHerb said:

But if a player such as McTominay wanted to come to West Ham then Rice wouldn't want to leave in the first place as we would be something special.

You think so? I don’t think McTominay will stay at Man U if they establish themselves as a top team again. His position is one of their weaknesses and his next step will be to a Europa League side. He’s solid but I don’t think he’s that great.

Not sure personally if I’d want him or not. He seems to move so awkwardly.

alderz

I agree with the first part of what outcast said. Basically I agree with him until he disagreed with me

OldCastleSwift

Ex's transfer round-up is pretty depressing. In short, nothing is close, and there's a very real chance we'll bring no-one in. As confirmed by Moyes, a bid was made for Seville's En-Nesyri, but Ex has implied that it was a deliberately low bid that was never going to be accepted, just like Tarkowski in the summer. We 'bid' £25m already knowing that Seville want £40m and neither the Seville manager nor the player want the move, so absolutely no chance of it happening.

Josh Maja's name was mentioned as a possible target if he becomes available at the end of the window as Moyes likes him from his time at Sunderland, and Dia, Aboubakar, Simeone, Laborde, Dalort and Edouard are all on the list but none are close. Dawson may become a permanent deal "at the end of the window", which would free up a domestic loan place. Quite why we'd leave it until the end of the window and thus limiting the time we have to get a loan in is beyond me, but there we go.

For those of us our worried about squad depth, we're apparently prepared to let Holland, Coventry and Cardoso go on loan, but all are currently injured (obvs), so either way, our numbers are further limited.

Absolutely no mention of midfielders or left-backs, so I'm getting the feeling this will be a very quiet January window and we'll be left pinning our hopes of a good second half of the season on Antonio's hamstrings and keeping SouDec fit for the remainder.

yoyo

I know he's unpopular with some but Danny Rose on a free would add cover at left back, or is he over the hill? He's 30 so could still go a couple of years

Ravel49

Think Maya was linked before
Mostly likely deal IMO

whupathman

we should no longer be surprised by the pretence of activity by the board and offering low so they are either getting a bargain or say they tried.

Yeoldhammer

Antonio as our only CF option is absurd.

Hamstew

A deliberately low bid? So Sullivan still thinks the fans are stupid. I seriously despise that man.

baracks_a_hammer

Those three charlatans remain the core problem. They can blame Covid all they like but the situation would be no different otherwise. They have form

We are at a crossroads where being genuinely in the European mix is within our grasp including a manager who knows how to get us there.

However it requires an enhancement in quality to go around Rice (our prized asset) as well as keeping him

So to progress means (needs) three things - keeping Rice, adding extra quality around him and having owners prepared and able to invest in this progression

We don’t have that

Hamstew

Owners are just holding out until they can sell. It's so obvious. More will go in the summer and less will come in.

yoyo

You'd think that for a little more investment, we might get European football. That would make the club more valuable and attractive to future buyers

OldCastleSwift

baracks_a_hammer said:

Those three charlatans remain the core problem. They can blame Covid all they like but the situation would be no different otherwise. They have form

That is something else Ex mentioned, actually. Remember when Financial Fair Play was often cited as a reason we couldn't spend money? We don't hear about that anymore now we have Covid as a reason/excuse not to spend, but once the fans are back I fully expect there to be something else trotted out.

Hamstew

I hold my hands up I was really against Moyes. But it goes to show what a job he's doing with those in charge holding him back.

yoyo

We we're supposedly sniffing around Milik. Looks like he's going on loan to Marseille: Marseille have an obligation to buy for €8m plus €4m bonuses and there is a 20 per cent sell-on clause on any future deal. The bonuses are understood to be related to team results.  

Milik had been frozen out at Napoli and is in need of games to ensure his place in Poland's squad for the rescheduled European Championships this summer.

ASLEFshrugged

OldCastleSwift said:

I'm getting the feeling this will be a very quiet January window.

So basically what Moyes has been saying since December

yoyo said:

I know he's unpopular with some but Danny Rose on a free would add cover at left back, or is he over the hill? He's 30 so could still go a couple of years

I never rated him, even when he was playing for England and I'd rather give Johnson the chance

Hamstew said:

More will go in the summer and less will come in.

Sorry but I don't see it that way, Moyes has cleared out the players he didn't feel were part of his future plans and has brought in players that have brought an improvement to the squad.

baracks_a_hammer

Did Moyes say in December that it would be a quiet window AND we would be selling our only specialist c/f to boot?

No, I didn’t think so

IronHerb

Why would he when he was unaware of any offer?

ASLEFshrugged

Moyes said "we don’t have any real big intentions of making signings".

I imagine he didn't say anything about Haller because from what he said afterwards he didn't know Ajax were interested.