Whether it be under the guidance of Nuno Espírito Santo or Nils Koppen, West Ham United’s transfer strategy does appear to have taken a massive step forwards, since the bad old days of David Sullivan picking players through his favoured agents regardless of their age or, disastrously, their future value.
Joel Veltman excepted, (and he’s turning out to be pretty decent) this summer the Hammers have focussed on younger talent, bringing in Austbø, Mukasa and Engels along with ‘elder statesmen’ Piroe (at 27) Solomon (27)Morato (25) and Adama Boiro (24) respectively. Gone, fortunately, are the days of ‘Sully specials’ like Callum Wilson or, even worse, Tim Stediten’s infamous brain fart signing of Niclas Fullkrug.
And true to form, the Hammers have continued to buck their former trend by turning their backs on the chance of bringing in crocked former Brighton forward Solly March on a ‘free’ transfer.
Solly March, former Brighton veteran, rejected out of hand by this new-era West Ham recruitment team.
The veteran all-rounder, 32, brilliant in his time but with a worse injury record than Fullkrug, was linked just last week with a move as a free agent to east London to provide cover for Jarrod Bowen.
According to hammers.news in their ‘exclusive’ the club have ruled out March, deemed a very good player but ‘always injured‘ and therefore unsuitable for this West Ham squad.
Amen to that. Slowly, surely and quietly, change in the recruitment policy brought about following Koppen’s appointment does signal a sea change and at last, common sense breaking out at the club which had the oldest squad in the Premier League just a couple of seasons ago.
Does Tim Stediten’s signing of young but not so gun Brazilian Luís Guilherme qualify as an infamous brain fart? I believe we lost a lot of money on that one despite expecting him to increase in value while a Hammer. I guess you could say he was not so much an unpolished gem but more a case of fool’s gold.