FORGET the Carabao Cup nonsense last night for a second, if you can. West Ham have left themselves a mountain to climb in the transfer window which closes on 1st September. Twelve senior player departures this summer leaves the side completely inadequately set up for a Premier League campaign. Bottom of the league after two games with eight goals conceded means the alarm bells should be ringing loud and clear.
Something of a relief, then, to hear of the late frenzy which has hit the Hammers’ transfer effort as a last minute panic sets in.
As Gonzo wrote yesterday, the Hammers were reported as having upto eight bids going in, in addition to the ‘done deal’ signalled by Fabrizio Romano yesterday for Monaco’s defensive midfielder Soungoutou Magassa who is due to travel for a medical before signing a six year permanent contract at West Ham.
Great: eight bids- two or three extra signings then, you’d hope.
Which begs the question – where is the money coming from to make these bids?
Those who read our articles religiously – there are a few- will recall the ‘insider’ comment from the weekend regarding a sale of Brazilian midfielder Lucas Paquetá:
“We’d have to bring in a lot of players first, to even consider it”: Which suggests to me, being cynical, that West Ham have already worked out how to fund their last minute transfer window splurge. Eight bids in, one already accepted – how many is ‘a lot’ of players, do you think, two or three?
Wouldn’t surprise me to see the Hammers back in for Mateus Fernandes to do a late deal with Southampton and bring in one more signing on top, at the expense of a sale of the Hammers’ Brazilian for £50 million plus. Which would be a kind of bittersweet ‘end of one era, start of another’ at London Stadium.
Yeah right. 8 bids… my ark!! If its true then they’ll be low ball and totally unacceptable
Sorry we tried but…. yada yada yada
Ben there done it got the badge..and the season ticket money
Or just maybe all the stories of our depleted funds were just lies? Sorry, misunderstandings.
Personally I don’t think we will miss pac man , he costs us a goal in almost every game , yes he can see a pass unlike the rest of the squad but if we can get 60m for him im happy then let’s go get Harvey elliot from liverpoo , and still have change to add elsewhere, 60m for oac man yes please
There seem to be no valid reasons to sell Paqueta (I’m not saying that will prevent it from happening). He needs to be surrounded with better players (defensive midfield, box-to-box) and if you add somebody such as Earthy (for short periods) or another skilful all rounder you are better off with 2 (Payet+Lanzini). Have to be all rounders who pass, tackle, cover, etc.
He is scoring goals as well and is creating chances.
If you want to talk about money he looks as though he will be having a cracking season even if the club don’t. At the end he’ll be worth more but in addition perhaps a good champions League club will come in for him early and he’ll fully deserve that chance.If you start planning now, talking with the player in mid season, potential buyers, etc. you have a chance of doing well by the club and the player. Anyway, that’s my tuppence worth.
I hope one of the bids in is for Mainoo. Would love him at our place. Know deep down there is no way a bid is in for him from us but I can dream
Sorry but Paqueta is a luxury player. When he is good he is an excellent player but too often loses or gives away possession. He is not strong enough and too often goes to ground claiming he has been fouled. How many goals have we conceded by these antics?-more than he has scored?
We could bring in 3 world class midfielders but potter would still play ward Prowse Martin, somehow potter sees JWP doing the square root of nothing and thinks wow he’s the first name on ever team sheet for me. On selling Paq man of course they’re going to sell him if a biggish offer comes in, they’ve been hawking him and kudus around for months and they’ll try to convince us with their propaganda that brownhill really is a good replacement for him when they bring him in!
That’s a good point Dean. Everyone seems to be writing off Brownhill as a player and I also agree that he would be an underwhelming signing. The stark truth, however, is that he would be an upgrade on JWP.