ClaretandHugh follower Eug is a worried man as we approach the transfer window with a barren winter behind us, Here he explains why:
By Eug
I’m extremely worried about the current situation at the club.
When Moyes came back to the club and stated the way forward is to stop buying older players at vastly inflated prices that are worth next to nothing a couple of years later and start investing in young up and coming players from around the world. I was very excited
When he identified the scouting department needed a complete overhaul and introduced Rob Newman as Head of Recruitment, I thought at last things are going to change for the better and we will become the up-and-coming team in Europe.
When we were then being linked with young players such as, Nikola Milenkovic, Duje Celeta, Darwin Nunez, Adam Hlozek, Patrick Schick, Boubacar Kamara, Fabio Carvalho, Luis Diaz and Keane Lewis-Potter things looked even better.
Come January we are sitting around 4th place in the Premier League and in the final knockout stages in the Europa League I though “this is it.”. We are going to buy a couple of the players listed above for the final push into the Champions League and win the Europa League.
Then January comes and goes and. NOTHING! We buy no-one.
Nunez
(Photo by CARLOS COSTA / AFP) (Photo by CARLOS COSTA/AFP via Getty Images)
Teams around us bring in players, notably Tottenham in Rodrigo Betencur & Dejan Kuluseski (finish 4th in Premier League) and Liverpool sign one of our supposed targets Luis Diaz (finish 2nd in Premier League and Champions League finalists).
With injuries and exhaustion, we slide down to 7th. Still not bad, but it was there for the taking.
One day after the season ends and Aston Villa sign (On a FREE) one of our top young targets from Marseille, Boubacar Kamara.
Then a couple of days later make another signing Diego Carlos. Liverpool also one day after the end of the season sign Fulham’s young starlet Fabio Carvalho, again linked as one of our targets.
Hlozek
Then another hotly linked target Adam Hiozek is sold by Sparta Prague to Bayer Leverkusen. Yes our co-owner Danial Kretinsky is also co-owner of Sparta Prague. This was supposed to be a great advantage to West Ham to be able to buy some of their top players.
So none of the hotly tipped young talents have been signed by West Ham. Two have signed for rivals and one to a German side.
This along with one of last season’s star player Thomas Soucek apparently being less than happy about being played out of position. From an attacking midfielder that was marauding forward and scoring for fun, this season is played in a deeper role. Now we hear, there has been a row with Moyes and we could let one of our star players go.
Also leaving the club are the following, Mark Noble, Andrily Yarmolenko, Ryan Fredericks, Arthur Masuaku, Alex Kral, and Nikola Vlasic. Oh and one of our top backroom members Stuart Pearce has left.
It has gone from signing the top young talents from around the world to signing no-one with everyone wondering just what Rob Newman has been doing?
And just like my dreams, they fade and die.
Totally agree it is both damning and worrying. Contrary to the fast young players mantra, he passed up on Hlozec , was beaten out of sight by Villa and Spurs in January, has never given any team time to our top U23 players, and is doggedly stalking Lingard with Chamberlain as a possible – both nearing 30. Issa Diop at 25 is being eased out whilst Oggy, Cress and Daws stay on. Where is the recruitment?
Agree also, every window is groundhog day, other clubs can get signings over the line within days and we are left to the last few days in the window, with players nobody else was as ambitious about.
Will be interesting this window to see what difference Kretinsky and Newman make to our ability to get deals done early. If we don’t then it’s clearly a case of no change at the inn, DS probably running things with dithering Dave.
Dare I say we need a New man in recruitment! May be we can get Gary Numan…at least he has his own plane and could fly prospective targets into North Weald for their medicals, not that our medicals are usually up to much. Younger fans may need to google Gary Numan to discover he’s more of a musician than a soccer scout, but what exactly are Rob Newman’s credentials and what’s his track record…Are Friends (and signings) Pathetic?
The season only ended on Sunday. We have no idea how long those deals were in the making. Carvalho, for example, was clearly going to Liverpool for ages. If it gets to the opening day of next season and nothings happened fair enough but for goodness sake to say your dreams are fading and dying is just preposterous. Have a little faith. ⚒⚒
Sorry, can’t agree with you. But I do agree with the original article. Maybe Liverpool and Villa have been working their targets for months. But what’s to stop us from doing the same.?It’s such an obvious thing, but we can’t afford to wait to the start of the season before we assess what’s happened. You have to hit early, get them in BEFORE pre-season and start the the season proper with at least some bedding in of the new players. Otherwise it’s October/November before things can start to click.
It’s a bit early to get depressed over transfers.
I am more optimistic that we will sign up sufficient quality players so that we keep up momentum next season.
There already seems to be more movement in the market compared to the usual January stalemate. The so called missed opportunities mostly involved players that were only going to join an existing top four club or were players in positions we have not viewed as a priority.
I’m really worried too. There’s only around 100 days to go until the transfer window slams shut. David Moyes, who has only 18 years or so of experience of managing clubs in the top half of the EPL, and has just delivered two cracking seasons for a previously utterly dysfunctional football club, had better get his skates on.
I also agree , we had the chance to finish the season strong . No arrivals in January despite the amount of games left and squad needed rotation . No competition for places big mistake . I hope we get what we need to improve the squad and be even more competitive. We will need quality hard working team players to improve and no dithering and missing out . Let’s show our ambition ⚒⚒⚒
Excellent contribution, we must have a brilliant PR machine, interested in everyone, sign no one! If Newman has been doing his job then hopefully we should get signings nice and early in the window, never seems to happen, Masuaku and Vlasic still in contract, unlikely to attract much interest, and now Johnstone going to Palace despite being linked with us loads of time.
Not so bothered about that position, but let’s hope they learn a few lessons.
Good post, Eug. Plenty to reflect on there. I’d hoped Kretinsky’s investment would mean we have more chance of bringing talented Czech players like Hlozek to the Hammers – not see one of our best players being pushed towards the door, if reports are correct.
If nothing significant happens in this window, there will be trouble ahead and probably massive demonstrations
Yeah don’t take much for some