The Actual Transfer Window

thornburyiron

Trouble is it’s match day and how much input will or needs to happen from David to conclude things.

PrestonHammer

There will be no one coming in. As usual, for what ever reason, we've left it last minute again.

MrsGrey

Very little, I'd have thought. They should have all their ducks in a row already.

buffybegood

Sky Sports saying we've agreed a price of about £7m with Betis for the sale of Fornals. Definitely a bit lower than I'd have hoped for, maybe some add-ons to bulk it up a little.

Yeoldhammer

MIAHammer said:

Whitehorsehammer said:

Yeoldhammer said:

If Fornals goes to Betis and Benrahma goes to Lyon and we have no incomings this window that is absolutely trash management from up and down the club.

I don't agree. Benrahma needs to go, Fornals wants to go and I wish him well. We have already got in a higher quality midfielder for the rest of the season and we need to wait until the window has closed to see who else may come in. Management from top to bottom has IMO done very well over the recent past getting the quality of the starting eleven to a higher level. Parqueta, Kudus, Emerson, JWP. Alvarez.

I tend to agree with Yeolds sentiment.
This could end up being another repeat of the 21/22 season. Our failure to invest in the January window came back to bite us. We still ended finishing 7th but it could have been so much better.

My gripe isn't necessarily with losing momentum. Its the fact that we will go into summer where we need a huge clear out of players that just don't contribute enough, Johnson / Ings / Cresswell / Ogbonna / Antonio - all on a downwards trajectory. We then could potentially lose Fornals and Benrahma without a replacement this window or next.

We then have potentially our best players like Paqueta being taken from the likes of City. Leaving us wide open for not being able to effectively juggle a squad because we didn't replace surplus players with better players, we just sold those peripheral players and made the squad smaller.

To me it screams of a board planning for no European football which will have a further knock on effect for our recruitment. Its not a board that is looking to move on players surplus to requirements and bringing in an equivalent better player in the position that they vacate. Meaning there is competition for places and adequate cover for injuries and an increase in the squads capability to compete on multiple fronts.

We currently have a first 11 with zero back up competition effectively and a back up squad who gets beaten comfortably by mid table championship teams which is about to get depleted to nothing.

MrsGrey

buffybegood said:

We're being linked with Sarr from Marseille. We were also linked with him when Watford were relegated, but went with his team-mate Cornet instead. Weren't there suggestions at the time that Sarr, although talented, was a difficult player to have within the squad?

I just did a quick search (not social media, just news sites) and the most recent thing on that transfer dates back to the summer....

Is it a reliable link, do you think?

Lukerz

Allowing Benrahma & Fornals to go with no replacements would be ridiculous.

buffybegood

MrsGrey said:

Is it a reliable link, do you think?

Probably not 😂🤣😂

buffybegood

It shows how little is going on, Sky keep going on about Fury v Usyk, and Hamilton to Ferrari.

buffybegood

Benrahma has been photographed in a Lyon tracksuit, seems very likely to be happening.

buffybegood

buffybegood said:

PSG are still trying to offload Ekitike. We've done business with them before, seeing as most of our preferred targets for permanent moves seem to have fallen through, I'd really like to see us try a loan with an option for Ekitike. He can play centrally or wide, and seems to prefer the left side over the right.

Unfortunately he's just gone to Eintracht Frankfurt on loan with an option. Shoulda been all over that 😭😭😭.

buffybegood

Fornals is at the London Stadium, although not in the matchday squad. I wonder if his move will go through "subject to medical".

Lukerz

Squad depth looking pretty bad. When everybody is back & available, we have a possible bench of:

Fabianski, Mavropanos, Ogbonna, Coufal, Cresswell, Soucek, Cornet, Antonio, Ings

But then it’s the kids/academy.

MrsGrey

He looks delighted to sign for Burnley.

PrestonHammer

He's got that what am I doing here look hahaha

MIAHammer

We have 25 more minutes to sign a striker. What are we waiting for?

thornburyiron

One of if not the most boring transfer window I can remember.

buffybegood

Adam Wharton has been signed by Palace from Blackburn for £18m, very good business he's a cracking player imo.

buffybegood

Suggestions that Benrahma's move to Lyon has fallen through as we didn't submit the correct documentation in time. Absolute shambles if true. He's gonna be well motivated if he has to come back after it was all agreed.

Yeoldhammer

they messed up the Benrahma deal, shameful from the board and club

claretandbluesky

I read a post on twitter that stated there was a problem because he was trying to negotiate a payment from us of the difference of the drop in wages he has agreed with Lyon and what his contract is with us.

steve

Perhaps it was our way of keeping him ,after we failed to get anyone in

Lukerz

Can’t help but feel the Benrahma thing may have been a little ‘deliberate’ on the clubs part.

buffybegood

Lukerz said:

Can’t help but feel the Benrahma thing may have been a little ‘deliberate’ on the clubs part.

The statement from Lyon certainly suggests it was very deliberate on our part, very, very shoddy imo:

"SAID BENRAHMA
This February 2, Olympique Lyonnais deeply regrets the failure of the transfer of Saïd Benrahma, for reasons beyond its control, and questions the behavior of West Ham which did not succeed in finalizing the required administrative procedures despite all the agreements concluded.

The reasons for the failure of Saïd Benrahma's transfer
Olympique Lyonnais were delighted to welcome Saïd Benrahma to Lyon this Thursday to finalize his transfer from West Ham. The two clubs had signed a temporary transfer agreement, and Olympique Lyonnais had obtained approval from the DNCG to allow the transfer to take place smoothly and transparently.

However, at the start of the evening, while Olympique Lyonnais had entered all the administrative data on the dedicated FIFA platform (FIFA TMS), West Ham had never launched the slightest technical procedure on its part, despite the repeated reminders from the OL and continuous mutual telephone communication.

In the absence of this reciprocal action on the part of the English club and following this incomprehensible behavior, raising questions, the international transfer certificate could not be requested before closing time.

Olympique Lyonnais deeply regrets this situation and this decision, demonstrating a profound lack of respect on the part of West Ham towards the Institution and the player.

The club reserves the right to initiate all appropriate procedures necessary to validate the transaction at a later date, and to hold West Ham responsible if necessary."

(Sorry for the long quote, it's a translation from the original, posted on KUMB).

Sounds like we completely ghosted them at the crucial moment, completely unprofessional when everything had been agreed. After a few windows where we seem to have behaved in a reasonable manner, this is back to the sort of behaviour that has lead clubs to refuse to have any dealing with us. Hardly surprising really, and it's not exactly going to encourage clubs to deal with us in the future, or to feel they can't pull similar stunts against us either.

buffybegood

If, as seems very likely, we've deliberately pulled the plug on Benrahma's move, it's really, really shoddy by the club, and could easily have long term consequences. Our reputation as a club to deal with has hardly been great under Sullivan, but this farce will undoubtedly make more clubs wary about dealing with us, and will no doubt add Lyon to the list of clubs that refuse to deal with us.

Players too could well be put off coming here when they see how disrespectfully we've treated Benrahma, and it's hardly going to make our own dressing room feel good when they see how our owners have treated one of our own.

Nothing but negatives will come from this imo

alderz

You say that now, but wait til Benny scores off the bench in the Europa League final

buffybegood

Suggestions that, like the Benrahma deal, Fornals's move to Real Betis was also scuppered by missing or incorrect paperwork.

MrsGrey

Hang on. According to C&B's post, and despite what Lyon put in their statement it wasn't 'all agreed'.

The club hadn't agreed with Benrahma and his agent.

So why would they do the paperwork on transferring him?

We don't know the facts of the case, so why the rush to judgement?

MrsGrey

It is a confusing situation:

BBC reported on Wednesday, offer had been accepted by WH with "the final decision now in the 28-year-old Algerian's hands".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68151488
That was still the story on Thursday https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/cjjxvyvl4plo


According to the Daily Star West Ham said in a statement that the deal fell through because it "couldn't be finalised" before the deadline, with club insiders pointing the finger at Benrahma's representatives for repeated delays.

Re. Fornals, the Spanish transfer window closed at 10pm last night, by which time Fornals hadn't had a medical ...

Slacker

MrsGrey said:

Hang on. According to C&B's post, and despite what Lyon put in their statement it wasn't 'all agreed'.

The club hadn't agreed with Benrahma and his agent.

So why would they do the paperwork on transferring him?

We don't know the facts of the case, so why the rush to judgement?

Because it’s too good an opportunity to give the club a kicking.
Never let the facts get in the way etc.etc.