West Ham recruitment and general grumbling
With deadline day over we may need a place for those not happy with our transfer strategy to vent over the next few months.
We know there's a lot of work to do in the summer, some of which could have been mitigated in January had we had anything approaching a plan. With a minimum of seven players needed, I really hope that Moyes, Newman and the board start working on deals NOW. Have a plan for qualifying for the EL, and a plan for not. Please don't wait for May before deciding on drawing up a list of potential targets.
We know there's a lot of work to do in the summer, some of which could have been mitigated in January had we had anything approaching a plan. With a minimum of seven players needed, I really hope that Moyes, Newman and the board start working on deals NOW. Have a plan for qualifying for the EL, and a plan for not. Please don't wait for May before deciding on drawing up a list of potential targets.
Comments
We needed to strengthen in this window with Europa and Premier league games coming up and now we will have the same old subs coming on(Yarmolenko and Arthur).It doesn't bode well.
Nat Phillips from Liverpool was a player i've always liked and supposedly we were interested in and he's gone to championship side bournmouth on loan
https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/west-ham-transfer-deadline-day-january-analysis-b979939.html
Last sentence sums it up for me:
"With United in transition and Spurs and Arsenal still unconvincing, West Ham might just have let slip a huge opportunity."
So either Moyes doesn't think he's good enough, or we were in for him and he preferred Bournemouth, which you would assume is unlikely.
Looking forward to getting rid of players who I feel are just not good enough but we also cant ahift, Yarmolenko, Fredericks etc. Honestly think Ashby and Oxo-Flex could probably do a better job right now
Noble will be a miss, but it was always inevitable
Expect Johnson and Fab to get new contracts, I'll be furious if they don't
Big 6 months for Kral and Areola, Areola may have won the #1 spot off Fab, now he needs to lay a marker. Then perhaps he can be our Keeper for the next 6+ or so years. Doubt Kral will stay though, but plenty of games left to play, may be pleasantly surprised
Don't think we'll see many leave, Rice and now Bowen are the big two, think Rice will leave even if we get top 4 but feel Bowen will stay now Liverpool have added another winger (unless they sell Salah but that would be a HUGE downgrade)
Still hope some youth can come through, don't expect a Rice level talent but would be delighted for one or two more around Johnsons level break through
Think we need CB, LB, CM, ST and then a GK if Areola doesn't stay, likely two CMs when Rice leaves
We'll need at least two CMs off the bat, as Noble will need replacing, and Kral will almost certainly go back to Moscow. Maybe Ekwah could make the step up, but with no PL minutes behind him it would be a big ask.
For me, we need as a minimum:
CB
LB
CM x 2 (3 if Rice goes)
RW
ST
And that's assuming we take the option on Areola.
Fredericks won't need replacing (Coufal, Johnson and Ashby should be enough), so that's £50k a week back, and Yarmo's replacement won't cost us £100k a week I'm sure, so we should have money in the both pots.
No excuses for the summer. We know what we need and we have to get it done.
This will catch up eventually unless some of the U23s breakthrough to the first team and become a prominent feature similar to Johnson, as each window we are losing more players than gaining and this summer we are certainly losing several players based on loan ends and contracts ending.
All of this is before we even talk about existing current players like Masuaku / Diop who aren't good enough and suitors coming in for the likes of Rice and Bowen.
We sold Haller 388 days prior to making that bid.
'Ran out of time' is not an excuse for not bringing in a striker.
It's actually embarrassing.
It's on the people who were in the power to make those decisions now, and from now to the end of the season we will see who was right. It's not beyond this squad to still make their mark within the competitions we are competing for but it will rely on a great deal of luck regard injuries and the ability of certain players to retain top form throughout what could become a very busy period come March.
As fans I think the disappointment we fear at the end of the season isn't that we didn't win anything or even get top 6, but that we didn't make the most of an opportunity to have a real go on one of the few occasions we had the chance to.
Callum Marshall joined West Ham’s Academy of Football on a full-time Scholarship deal in January 2022. The 17-year-old signed from NIFL Premiership leaders Linfield, for whom he made the first five senior appearances of his career earlier that season after signing as one of their first-ever scholars.
In 4 games for WHU U-18 he has scored 4 goals.
So potentially we have three more windows to endure with Sullivan running things.
Ultimately, they've never had the clubs or fans best interests at heart; it's always been about how much they can make from West Ham. If there was no Olympic Stadium in London in 2012, I don't think they'd have bought us in the first place.
In the last three windows we've only signed two players permanently. The rest have been loans. For a club supposedly with CL ambitions, that's not enough, IMO. I honestly think EL qualification was an inconvenience to Sullivan and he'd be happy with finishing 15th every season. As far as I'm concerned it's only ever been about staying onboard the PL gravy train for GSB.
Plenty of money has been spent without the desired outcome
Yes, you'd like to think that the investment would pay dividends....but if we spent million and millions and still missed out, we'd be in a much more precarious position
Maybe I’m being naive, but you would hope business people like GSBK would think this too. Also, Newman has been involved with Man City as well, so should know what is needed.
I would like to say alot on the debacle last month was transfer wise, but they would be my own thoughts that a few on here wouldn't agree with, so I will keep my powder dry for a change. I will just say I really feel betrayed.
ii: Lack of investment.
iii: Squad:
iiii: Future plans
Please see my above grumbling appendix