The on-off saga of Adama Traoré to West Ham United appears to be nearing its conclusion, with the Fulham winger now at the Hammers’ Rush Green training ground.
The news was broken by ExWHUEmployee this morning and, all being well, Traoré should be a West Ham player in time to feature against Chelsea. Claret & Hugh were informed over the weekend that West Ham would pay “nothing unless they avoid relegation”, making this a low-cost, heavily incentivised deal.
Clearly, the signing gives Nuno Espírito Santo more of the “squad balance” he regularly talks about. West Ham are light on attacking options, with Jarrod Bowen and Crysencio Summerville the only two recognised wingers currently at the club.
Squad Balance, Not First-Team Improvement
In that sense, the Traoré deal makes logical sense. However, as I alluded to in this morning’s blog, it does not really improve the first team.
That said, Traoré is clearly a player Nuno desperately wants, and from that perspective alone, it is important that the manager is backed.
However, with £35 million-plus expected to arrive following the departure of Lucas Paquetá, the squad still feels short. Another creative midfielder and a central defender remain priorities.
I would also argue that an additional forward and possibly another winger could be added to that list — though that may be edging into greed or unrealistic expectation.
My concern is a simple one: that the savings made on the Traoré deal are not passed on to fund further reinforcements, leaving West Ham short when it matters most.
The only plus I can see from Traore is if he distracts opposition defences enough to enable others to score. He does not score goals and does not stop them. 6 days left and we still do not have a commanding central defender, which should be our ONLY priority. Simple arithmetic, we need to score more goals than we concede each game, and we have players who can score.
I’m pleased about this one. He offers pace, experience, and is a top dribbler. Outside of the starting 11, we haven’t got those skills to come off the bench.
We all said this about Wilson, now look. At least give the bloke a chance ffs
This is a sad day and shows how far we have fallen. Traore wouldn’t get in my local step 5 side. Joins, Savio, Boogers, McCarthy, Maiga, MacDougall, Mido and Raducoicu as our worst ever signings!
😂….bloody hell geez,the ink aint even dry on his contract yet and youve already got him down as a flop.
Nuno got the best out of him at Wolves and with a loving arm round his shoulder again and some sweet little words to him,who knows ? Could be a great signing if he helps to keep us up.
You say its a sad day and look how far we’ve fallen….Reality check geez were 3rd from bottom,5 points behind our nearest rival already,we aint exactly got huge pulling power at the moment on who we could potentially sign.
Nuno knows him well,hes going to add a bit more in our wide areas and gives the squad a bit more balance.Hopefully he can be a good impact sub for the last 20 or so when the games stretched and we could be chasing.
Time will tell but at least give him a chance fella….