The January Transfer Window

PrestonHammer

If the company I work for were paying me a couple of million every year but undermining me, I wouldn't care less, especially if I was still doing a pretty good job.

Cuz1

Your easily brought then happiness before cash for me every day of the week, been there book and t-shirt

PrestonHammer

Are you saying Moyes isn't happy?

Cuz1

I can’t speak for him but I wouldn’t be happy if o was told to sell players without replacing them

Fortuneseeker

Preston, I would want a clear conscience in managing my team to be able to say to them that all their hard work is going to recognised & every effort is going to be made to support them by improving the squad. Money shouldn’t be the sole motivating factor, job satisfaction plays a big part & I would hope DM wouldn’t be happy if he feels he is being undermined by G&S in making progress. Where is the incentive for Declan to stay?

buffybegood

Cuz1 said:

I can’t speak for him but I wouldn’t be happy if o was told to sell players without replacing them

He's probably happier doing the job with a degree of being undermined than not doing a job at all (especially when he's, by any ordinary standard, being extremely well rewarded for it), but I'm sure he'd be happier still if he was doing it and not being undermined.

ScotHammer

In lieu of any good transfer news to report.....

Might be forced to eat my words, but one positive from this window could be keeping Rice. He is currently playing well, captaining a winning team, and forming a very good partnership with Soucek which is improving him all the time. He is allegedly interesting a club currently below us in the league, who could be in managerial turmoil very soon. And there’s no guarantee he’ll fit in with the way they are trying to play.Why would he want to leave?

Not saying we’ll finish above Chelsea this year, but you never know!

Feeling positive tonight😃

whupathman

the beeb has a report we will take 50m for Rice due to COVID, I hope this its trash talk

Hamstew

Antonio gets injured any time soon and we limp our way to the end if our season imo. We have no replacement. It's absolutely nuts.

claretandbluesky

whupathman said:

the beeb has a report we will take 50m for Rice due to COVID, I hope this its trash talk

In the same column they state that we are upping our offer to 16m to sign King. I doubt very much any club is paying 16m for king who is out of contract in six months and I doubt West Ham need lower their price for Rice to 50m to sell him.

These two stories contradict logic. We up our offer to buy a player out of contract soon and lower the price of our best player who has over three years on his current contract.

I think Bournemouth would be lucky to get 5m for King and even then he would probably refuse, to pocket a signing on fee for himself in the summer. I doubt Rice leaves for less than 70m plus add ons.

ASLEFshrugged

Our current problems are a result of having three managers in the last six years which is absolutely the owners' fault but I don't believe for a moment that any transfers are done without Moyes approval. If Moyes wasn't happy with anything I have no doubt he'd quit and S&G would be scrambling to find yet another manager.

Haller clearly wasn't working, Ajax gave Moyes the opportunity to get his wages off the books and get some cash back. If he'd waited until summer Ajax would have gone elsewhere and possibly we'd be stuck with Haller until 2024.

It was widely reported that Snodgrass wanted to leave to get first team football, we weren't going to renew his contract and rather than have an unhappy player sitting on the bench he was allowed to leave.

Moyes hasn't brought in replacements yet but its pretty clear that he is patient and willing to wait to sign the players he wants instead of buying just any player to fill a gap (Hugill was an aberration)

Moyes has got us 7th on 32 points at the halfway stage, I'm more than happy with the way things are going and I am happy to trust Moyes to do what he thinks is best for the club. S&G might be idiots but even they aren't so stupid that they don't know a good thing when they see it and are not going to risk spoiling things.

BubblesNeverDies

happy to trust Moyes to do what he thinks is best for the club

This. 👍

alderz

Oh, completely agree with that part.

I just don’t believe that all decisions are made solely by him, and I struggle to envisage a scenario where he thinks “yes, I’ll sell one of only two strikers at the club and bring nobody in”. He’s said himself the club are looking at strikers, so clearly he wants to bring someone in. If we don’t bring someone in, then it is a failure by the club. I don’t blame Moyes for that, I blame the owners.

baracks_a_hammer

We are not playing overly well but are picking up wins. Our last three (incl Stockport) is evidence of this. This is Moyes own admission (which is good to hear)

7th place or not, the situation regarding personnel cannot stay the way it is once the window shuts. Moyes really doesn’t need much for it to be ok, and I’m sure he’s not asking for much either. He needs to be properly supported. He CAN deliver us European football this season.

Lukerz

It’s funny because I actually think our performances have been pretty decent & consistent. I thought we were good against Burnley, better against WBA (both games should have been won by at least 2 goals). We were the better side at Everton (albeit a dull game) & Stockport was just a write off due to the pitch. We were very dominant against Leeds & controlled the game at Chelsea. Yeah, 1-0 wins makes it look like we are just falling on the right side of games, but actually we have been comfortable in all of them. Our worst recent performances were Brighton & Southampton, IMO.

Lukerz

Genuinely feel if there is a way we can get Arnie back, we should do it. Rumours he wants to return to Europe from China.

BubblesNeverDies

Lukerz, only if his wages are within reason.

If he were to return without the presence of the fans on his back and started banging in goals, I think he would be forgiven for his past behaviour.

baracks_a_hammer

Out of all the names and options banded about, in his heart of hearts I would think Arnie (loan) would be Moyes’ number one choice

IronHerb

And mine.

OutcastLondoner

I think Antonio has made us better but also highlighted how much we need another player like him. We’re stretching teams a bit more and have an outlet. We really do need to make this signing.

Benrahma’s improvements make a difference as well because he’s been so good at finding pockets of space. We’ve played 4 very well organised defences - one of them on a bog. You can see Moyes is trying to work on breaking down those deep defences. I think we were a bit worse when Benrahma came off the other day

Dodger58

Must admit I like the Adam Armstrong rumour.

After our Haller experience I would be amazed if we splashed out another £30-40M on another 'prolific' striker from the European leagues. If we can get at a reasonable price fine, but the Haller sale has also given the impression we have 'money to burn' and/or are desperate to some of our target's clubs.

ASLEFshrugged

Arnie returned to Shanghai to start training last week but Il Corriere dello Sport reckon he is in talks with Bologna.

Lukerz

It's worth also noting money does not equal 'good signing'.

Look at the side currently:

Fabianski - £7m
Coufal - £5m
Dawson - loan
Ogbonna - £10m
Cresswell - £4M
Rice - no fee
Soucek - £15m
Bowen - £20m
Lanzini - £10m
Benrahma - loan
Antonio - £7m

£78m roughly; Haller & Anderson cost more than that combined.

Dawson is a classic example of a good signing. Has cost us nothing (so far), a player who many thought 'eh', but one who no doubt feels he has won the lottery, having represented Watford, Rochdale, Bolton & WBA, now playing for West Ham at a stadium with a capacity for 80,000 fans. He, no doubt, is loving it, and with a good man manager, you get that extra 10% out of the player.

We have to buy wisely, not expensively. I know we all have our own views on GSB, but a loan signing does not have to be a bad signing. If it's the right player for us, our dynamics, personality wise, desperate to play for us, it can work.

BubblesNeverDies

Get the point about Dawson, although I'm a little worried about his distribution. He's played a few bad passes that have put us under pressure although fortunately nothing has come of it. Overall though, a good loan signing and one that I personally would like to be made permanent.

baracks_a_hammer

I don’t think many people would have a problem with loan signings (I know I wouldn’t). The thing troubling many is the prospect of letting go of two players from an already thin squad and not backfilling with anyone at all.

ASLEFshrugged

baracks_a_hammer said:

I don’t think many people would have a problem with loan signings (I know I wouldn’t). The thing troubling many is the prospect of letting go of two players from an already thin squad and not backfilling with anyone at all.

Just checked the calendar, there are nine days until the end of the transfer window.

Patience is my only virtue

Lukerz

baracks_a_hammer said:

I don’t think many people would have a problem with loan signings (I know I wouldn’t). The thing troubling many is the prospect of letting go of two players from an already thin squad and not backfilling with anyone at all.

I think that’s a worry for Feb 1st. Not now.

Pengeman

ASLEFshrugged said:

baracks_a_hammer said:

I don’t think many people would have a problem with loan signings (I know I wouldn’t). The thing troubling many is the prospect of letting go of two players from an already thin squad and not backfilling with anyone at all.

Just checked the calendar, there are nine days until the end of the transfer window.

Patience is my only virtue

Not worried. Carlton Cole is still available!

baracks_a_hammer

As is Adebayor (obvs)

Pearces_Left_Foot

Most transfer business will be done in the last few days of the window once all the players/clubs/agents know what's on offer and they can weigh up any decisions. There has been little transfer activity in the Premier League I think alot of clubs are not spending due to the uncertain situtation regarding finances due to COVID .