Call me an old cynic, but rumours that Champions League clubs are clamouring over themselves to sign Brightonâs Evan Ferguson are rather convenient.
Sky Sports have reported this evening that West Ham remain in the hunt for the Brighton hitman (not literally) but face stiff competition. Whilst I’m not suggesting there is no interest in the player, there is an element of me which worries the Hammers are getting played.
The reported queue for the big strikers services is almost as convenient as Brighton telling the world they wouldnât consider letting the 2o year old leave before the end of the transfer window. We have since discovered Ferguson has a mystery foot injury, which would likely have led to a failed medical anywayâalso incredibly convenient.
Predictably, there are calls for the club to “pay up” and use the ÂŁ57m Duran moneyâ which we probably never had in the first placeâ and give it to Brighton, just so the Hammers can beat the likes of Arsenal, Leverkusen, and presumably the Harlem Globetrotters to the signing of the player.
Iâm sure Iâm not the only one who is more than a little concerned that we might get our pants pulled down on this one.
While Ferguson is undoubtedly a talented player, he has a suspect injury record and has scored just 14 senior goals. Anything requiring more financial commitment than a loan with an option to buy would be rather naĂŻve, in my opinion.
The club must hold their nerve on this deal and pay no attention to the clamour on social media to “pay whatever it takes.” Every player has their value, but itâs almost impossible to gauge Fergusonâs given his limited record and injuries.
Just because somebody once claimed he was a ÂŁ100m player doesnât make ÂŁ50m a bargain.
Not sure how many people we employ to do analysis and scouting but clearly whatever it is has been wasted. We are not going to get a top quality striker -ever- unless we offer the going rate and they want to come based on future growth not this years. So would have to be a relatively unheard of name that has been identified or a proven championship striker that is young and can potentially step up- if, after 28 days, we are still undecided on an injured loan or cheap Silva who won’t score it is a sad indictment of the Board. If we seriously have no money know then what will change in 4 months when Cresswell, Fabianski, Antonio, Ings, Rodriguez, Coufal all need replacing as contracts finishing. We have already committed to 30+M for Tobido, where is the other 200M that we need coming from? (those going,6 min, plus 2 strikers, centre half and creative midfielder)
Offer 15m, 20m TOPS. Maybe add it a sell-on clause. I wouldnât do a loan because itâs going to get us trapped. Seems like a good idea but he either is 1. Shit and wastes minutes or 2. Really good and Brighton come back asking for a huge number again, and now weâre caught between keeping a good player who is very injury prone and keeping out new manager (who will want to keep him) happy. Do it now on the cheap or not at all, IMO. If heâs not available cheap, just walk away.
thank you
Which is another way of saying, “You know what? I think the fans on this site might just have something. Perhaps not everyone in football is as honest as us at West Ham”
So just in case you missed it, he is a broken non-scoring 20 year old who can’t get a game for his own team. In other words, less of a prospect than Luis Guilherme who we already own but insist on bitching about on a weekly basis.
My apologies if there was any offense but the asterisks were inserted on my behalf. Just insert the correct word for a female dog, (it’s in the dictionary).
This whole saga will start again with summer transfers..
Replacements needed for Antonio, Ings, Coufal, Cresswell, Mavro, Rodriguez, Fullkrug plus goalkeeper.
Need some recruitment now to lighten the load and not bring 8 players in altogether been proved it doesn’t work.
No thought process before transfer seasons start just a shot gun approach like throwing names into a hat.
If available Boniface appears have all needed qualifications and is on the move.
Remain in the hunt …how many days are left in the window ?….I think you a actually have to make a bid to get a player …..real ones i mean
For goodness sake if he would not pass a medical just walk away! We had months before the window knowing we had the oldest squad in the Premiership and Ings, Antonio and FĂźllkrug as our strikers with a combined age of 97! Fullkrug age 31 2 goals 1 assist, Ings age 32 1 goal, 1 assist, Antonio age 34 with 1 goal – 4 goals between them! Our team have only scored 28 goals and conceded 44 with a -16 goal difference!
Anyone should have known we needed to replace strikers and other key positions and Steidten and the Recruitment Team working with the club manager and directors to identify targets in advance of the window with transfer funds and back ups in place. So why after 29 days into the window are we still faffing around with the same 3 bloody targets who all have injury records and poor numbers of goals? Where are the scouting reports, lists of target players and funding? After a ÂŁ140 million spend we are 13 points off European qualification.
Today there are reports we are interested in signing 31 year old Alex Oxlade- Chamberlain who has missed 698 days through injury since the start of 2017/18. He has only played 170 minutes this season and since moving to Besiktas has only scored 5 goals and 1 assist in 36 games!
Give Graham the backing he needs this window and beyond and he will make a difference but the club need to step up massively over the next 5 days if we are to have any chance of being back in Europe and winning trophies.
All a load of bs ……
We won’t sign anyone this window….
Think Ferguson would be a bad signing anyway,the geezers been injured for a long time now,hasn’t played in ages so how long would it be before he could play for us anyway ??
We need 5 wins to be safe,we’ve got Bowen and Sommerville back soon so we can get them no problem,the fact there’s so many poor teams in this league as well helps us.
Let’s just hold tight with the reddys this window and save it them for the summer…
Well said mate
Loan with an option would be sensible business given the injury history. I think Brighton will struggle to get any takers for an outright purchase right now despite there being a lot of interest in the player.
I donât see any possibility of being played as I donât believe we have made a bid. This window is playing out exactly as it always does when Sullivan and Brady run our transfer business. Lots of false rumours and phantom bids and the end result no one new joins.
MB: I bet you a pint at least one player joins West Ham this window.
Probably won’t be who we wanted, or expected, but hey, this is West Ham!?
Given the standard of our decision making he’ll be announced record signing in the morning…