Transfer Speculation (1st June onwards)
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Comments
So what would you write in this gap?
Personally I think that in order to ........................................... next season, we need at least five players (LB, CB, CM, AM and ST) and ideally six (I think we need a new GK).
Genuine question, because I think we all have different ideas of what we are aiming for, achievement-wise and what signings we need for that.
My own cloze answer is 'to be competitive in the top half of the table all season' and not finish below 10' plus try to get to the knockout stage of the Europa. Which I think is realistic. ( I suppose I'm answering that question we sometimes pose at the start of a new season - what constitutes success/progress)
Yes, we need this and that position filled but what’s better than seeing a kid come through and making that position his own? I’m not saying that we shouldn’t buy in players if they’re right for us but unless we move some bright young kids up then I wonder why we have a youth set- up in the first place.
Pereira - loan, obligation to buy
Abraham - loan, option to buy
Maitland-Niles - £15m
Tarkowski - £25m
£10m goes towards the loan fees
Which I believe should to be the goal of any club going into a new season. Might not achieve it, obviously, but to give us a chance of doing so, I think we need more options across the pitch.
And I know 'improve' could mean a few things; higher league position, more points or, ultimately, a trophy, but all need a bigger and more balanced squad, IMO.
I've referenced those positions because I don't think we have good enough options in them to see us through 50+ games and 'improve'. I don't think we have adequate cover for Cresswell (in fact I think he needs replacing at LB), for Ogbonna, or for Rice or Soucek, we need to replace Lingard (or bring him back) and obviously we need cover/competition for Antonio.
I also don’t think we are likely to improve on last season in terms of points or positions. I think for us to improve would basically mean a Champions League place. I think our aim should be to consolidate ourselves in the top 10 as quickly as possible, to give us a chance to target the FA Cup & (hopefully) give the Europa League full attention.
If we were able to finish in the top 8, that would be a good, consolidating season.
Moyes is already talking about getting Champions League. Ambitious, yes. Unlikely, definitely, but I'd like to believe that our board are thinking the same thing. If our aim is to consolidate top 10, then arguably we already have enough, bar an Antonio alternative. The risk with this is that our best players will probably want out if they see such a limited ambition, so when we lose Rice, and possibly Soucek, that consolidation will in all likelihood become regression and we're back to square one.
Let me be clear, I'm not expecting Champions League or a trophy-laden season. But I'd like to see a squad that is at least capable of challenging for it. With 18 days to go until the new season we're actually weaker right now than we were when last season ended, and whilst there's little doubt that we'll being in some players before the window closes, I don't think we'll bring in enough to 'improve' the squad enough to meet Moyes' ambition.
A replacement for Lingard, definitely on the Pereira train his stats look decent that he could make a deadly trio with Benrahma and Bowen in an attacking sense.
A CB, We lost Balbuena and Dawson and Ogbonna are in the latter years, going to need to bring in someone and then hopefully get Alves some game time.
A CM, Noble is going to be leaving, question marks over Rice for the future, a great opportunity to bring someone to embed over a season for when Noble does leave.
A LB, I dont think Masuaku is highly rated by Moyes for that LB spot and Cresswell needs some competition also another player entering his latter years where we need to start looking at bringing the age of the squad down.
a GK, still think Fabianski has got another season in him then his contract is up and i fully expect another goalkeeper to come in but if funds can stretch it a decent young goalkeeper wouldn't be the worst thing.
6 positions that i think need looking at, 4 / 6 i think are neccessary.
1. Loans still cost money. Lingard's loan cost us £5m if reports are to be believed. Deferring the full payment til next year is one thing, but I see a lot of people adding "loan with option" into their signings, without considering any fees.
2. Transfer fees aren't paid entirely up front. I read something recently that said that approximately 40% is paid up front usually, and the rest is paid over the course of the players contract. Nobody knows if we have £50m or £50, but on top of that we don't know if that is for up front fees this summer, or in total.
3. For me, a good season next season includes: a) anything above 14th without a relegation scrap, b) getting out of our Europa league group. If we don't do b, then we need to be top half, IMO.
4. Based on the above, I believe we need a ST to challenge Antonio (he won't be fit and in form all season), an AM to challenge Bowen, Fornals, Benrahma & Lanzini, a CM to give some competition to Rice & Soucek (I feel that Lanzini, Noble and Coventry are good backups, but are quite a big drop off in quality, and either a LB or a CB (if we plan to play a back 4, I think we need a left sided Coufal, if we plan to play a back 5, I think we need competition for Dawson / Diop). MAYBE we need a GK (Randolph seems to have gone off a cliff, Martin isn't a PL standard keeper, and both Trott and Anang aren't around anymore. I'm happy for Fab to play every game all season, but he likely won't be able to). So, for me, 4 or 5 signings. Anything outside of those positions would be in addition to.
5. I don't think it makes much sense to predict who we'll sign, but if I had to put money down, I'd say that we'll end the window with Areola, Pereira and Abraham, and not a huge amount else.
I reckon Moyes sees Lanzini as a CM option, alongside Noble and Coventry as SouDec cover, so I don't expect any new players for this position (unless Rice goes, which I have a feeling he will).
What I am not sure on is why would we enter contract talks to reward him, then not reward him? Not sure why we bothered opening discussions about a new contract. He’s only been here a year.
On this basis, we should be opening contract talks with Bowen, Souček, Fornals & Dawson.
I think if we spend money it needs to be up front. With Antonio last season we averaged 1.85 points per game, and 1.73 goals for. Without him it dropped to 1.42 points per game and 1.42 goals per game.
30 years old, Danish, 42 caps for his country, over 130 appearances for Udinese. Can play CM, CB, LB & as a wing-back but is predominantly a RB.
Available for around £5m.
I'm sure that all 20 clubs have that intention, but they obviously can't all finish higher than the previous year
Also if you look at the last couple years, last one was the outlier, it was a season whereby we overachieved and when you overachieve its much hard to recreate that let alone surpass it
And that's before even considering the financial disparity between us and the teams we'd be competing against for the top 4
As other have mentioned above, a good season for me would be around mid table with knockout stages in the Europa
Would preferably like to see us get top half but I'd be happy to lose a couple positions to have a slightly stronger Cup/Europa run
No relegation fight is a must though, that would be really hard to take
Backing up Antonio is our biggest priority
Do think Fab needs replacing, he's declining imo and the injuries rack up...Randolph is not good enough
Happy with our starting options at CB, CM and Wingers but depth in all 3 positions probably needed
I think we should go all out for Tarkowski & I am surprised we have not revisited that deal a year on.
I think a good season for us would be to consolidate ourselves in the top ten, to not have had a one-off season, and to have a team that are viewed as a real contender who doesn’t fall away.
Moyes has shown he can provide us with an entertaining and (arguably) successful team by improving the players we have and making good, astute signings who fit in.
Realistically we may have limited funds for the next few years. In many cases paying £30m+ for a player has proved it doesn’t work us in many cases. It can result in damage to the team togetherness that seemed to help West Ham to give us a great last season.
Let’s trust Moyes to spend money on players who will fit in and improve the team. That “player we’ve never heard of for £5m” may turn out to be another Soucek or Coufal!! IMO, while there are certain positions that undoubtedly need to be strengthened (eg. striker), paying the big bucks may not always be the right thing. I’d personally prefer to use some of the money to reward those who delivered last season to help to reward them, and motivate them for next year.
Pereira. - Lingard pontificating and too expensive so we should look elsewhere.
Striker. - I’d be happy with Abraham or Ings, but think we’ll end up with a ‘Moyes signing’
Johnstone and Pereira double deal, I reckon.
🤔
An old skool chinny reckon
But it's West Ham, so anything less than two months out would surprise me.