Free Transfer Failures I We Have Form

Thirty years on from the ‘Bosman’ Case that changed the football world forever. West Ham United are ‘rumoured’ to be signing ‘this’ player or ‘that’ on a ‘free’ transfer – which used to be called a Bosman deal. This named after Jean-Marc Bosman who was the moderate midfielder whose case created a landmark  ruling in the European Court of Justice allowing footballers to run down their contracts and leave at the end with their club being disallowed from demanding a huge contract fee for the parting of the ways.

There have been some spectacular successes in the world of ‘free’ transfers – but not associated with West Ham! I give you:

• Sol Campbell, Spurs to Arsenal 2001
• Zlatan Ibrahimovic – Paris St-Germain to Manchester United, 2016
• Robert Lewandowski – Borussia Dortmund to Bayern Munich, 2014
• Gianluca Vialli – Juventus to Chelsea, 1996

All examples of enormously successful players who went onto new career heights after their ‘free’ transfers.  Unfortunately, Free Transfers at West Ham United usually involve pushing unwanted players out of the door rather than laying the red carpet for marquee signings. So excuse me for being unenthusiastic about ‘free’ signings currently being written about with gusto. I offer you the following evidence:

Jack Wilshere and Carlos Sanchez 2018/19 arrived on a free. The notorious Roberto Jiménez Gago arrived on a ‘free’ transfer in 2019/20 and his cost was anything BUT free: (The only good thing about ‘free’ transfers was being able to send Roberto on his way for a ‘free’ the following season).

That same year we booted out Andy Carrol, Samir Nasri and Adrian on a free – if only we’d kept Adrian!

Possibly the only ‘free’ transfers in that were worth mentioning were Pablo Zabaleta 2017/8 and Ryan Fredericks 2018/9,  Zabaleta became an imported hero at right back whist Ryan Fredericks became frustrated after arriving later than Zabaleta and playing second fiddle to the Argentinian. and never fully establishing himself.

To my mind the worst batch of ‘free’ arrivals was the season before with Sofiane Feghouli, Alvaro Arbeloa, Ashley Fletcher and Havard Nortveit all arriving for ‘zero cost’.

And pretty universally, ‘zero’ is what they contributed to the team.

Historically before that the only Hammer I could find who contributed after arriving on a free was Darren Randolph in his first spell.

So those of you ‘eagerly’ awaiting news of the ‘free’ transfer arrival – and even those hunched over  their laptops, generating endless titles, stories, rumours: to borrow a phrase- ‘Be careful what you wish for’.

Free transfers usually – in West Ham’s case – end in tears and a silent goodbye with just the bus fare home.