West Ham are on the same points as Chelsea despite a massive gulf in summer spending and squad value
Chelsea were the big spenders in the transfer window as manager Frank Lampard overhauled his squad with the signings of Kai Havertz (£71m), Timo Werner (£48m), Ben Chilwell (£45m), Hakim Ziyech (£36m) and Edouard Mendy (£22m). Thiago Silva and Malang Sarr also joined on free transfers while the biggest fee received was the £50m from Atletico Madrid for Alvaro Morata.
Chelsea spent around £222m with £66m in outbound sales leaving a net spend of £156m.
Just the two signings for West Ham, both of them Czech: Tomas Soucek made his loan move permanent for £14.5m, while his former Slavia Prague teammate, Vladimir Coufal, arrived for £5.5m. Said Benrahma joined for a £4.75m loan fee with an obligation for £21.25m next summer.
The Hammers forked out nearly £25m in fees selling Grady Diangana £18m Albian Ajeti £4.5m and Jordon Hugill £2.5m to balance the books.
Perhaps David Moyes will have the last laugh after outperforming Chelsea and other teams who include Aston Villa and Southampton. Villa spent £74m last summer with just £2.5m coming the other way while the Saints spent £36m with £23m coming back to them.
It is not always about how much money you spend!
Frank Lampard could soon find that out the hard way and the pay the price with the sack.
David Moyes is a good fit with our club. He manages the correct team. He did well at Everton (reliable but not spectacular). He struggled going up to the Man Utd level. Pellegrini was OK with Man City’s financial reserves and inherited team. Not so clever with us. Eddie Howe was brilliant at Bournemouth. Nothing to spend. Overachieved and consistantly finding a level above their station. Never any honours. If Eddie Howe had taken over at Arsenal, Man U, Man City or Liverpool, it might not have followed that previous lesser club success would be repeated trying to handle ‘the best’.
Jose is a top club manager. IMO slumming it a bit at the moment with Spurs – but it was OK for Harry? It doesn’t follow that Klopp would have taken us to the places Liverpool have gone. Pellegrini or Grant could not cope with making us any better – despite the financial supprt for them and their staff. Frank Lampard is a class act and will come good for Chelsea. They are not the finished article just yet and their is a lot of competition for top honours. Money alone will not guarantee ‘success’. Money does buy a good squad. A good squad still needs time to become a great side. Frank will get there.
Having a laugh at outperforming does seem harsh. Depends what you have and how you use it. I can’t see Lampard getting the sack and being replaced with David Moyes (or Eddie Howe, or Sean Dyche, or Ryan Giggs). I don’t see Frank getting the sack anytime soon. Sorry, Sean.
COYI
If it’s telling us anything it’s that the current standard of German football is not as good as the premier league. Players that are big stars in Germany are coming over here and flopping. Haller, Werner, Havertz. Remember that guy called Meyer? Supposed to be the prodigal son in German football, came over here and seems to have disappeared into obscurity.
Pellegrini drove this point home. Literally. The real advantage of being rich seems to be in depth of the squad rather than any single talent. There really aren’t that many Messis around. Is there a better pairing than Rice-Soucek in the EPL? Balbuena-Ogbonna-Cresswell at the back? Perhaps, but for the money, we are light years ahead.
As an aside, watched Chelsea lose to ManC. More a clinic than a game, with a late goal for Chelsea making the score line more respectable. I don’t believe Chelsea had a shot on target in the first half, though there may have been a header. Suspect Lampart is on thin ice.
It isnt and I agree but that Dosnt happen all the time ,,and sometimes you have to spend ,, and in our case we need to spend some to get this forward once and for all ..money dosnt guarantee success but we cant think like that all the time ..if we want to move forward some money has to be invested ..imo
I guess it depends who is doing the spending childish . I hope people are getting used to the idea that Moyes is making the decisions. And I think we would all trust that situation a little more than Pelle and Sullivan
Our balancing the books did not look anywhere near as good in Pellegrini’s era and this article might have been written about us. As a club, we as fans need to be realistic about what is affordable and our recent acquisitions have been effective and value for money ( Bowen, Souchek, Coufal, plus the loanees). To dominate possession and win games in a very attacking style is what the biggest teams try to achieve but you need a truly massive transfer and wage budget. That’s for City, United, Liverpool, Chelsea – it’s not us. Teams that try that approach but fail to quite make the jump struggle and it can ruin the club if you get relegated. I much prefer the more pragmatic, organised style of play we are seeing now, which is successful and attractive enough given, the budget at the managers disposal.