Transfer window splash despite news reports
The news that West Ham need to sell players in January to buy new ones is possibly not the worst thing. My calculations on players bought and sold in the summer window would indicate that funds were available for at least one player. Certainly, the money the club can expect from the sales of Declan Rice, Gianluca Scamacca, Nikola Vlasic, and Arthur Masuaku is more than what was spent.
However, a clearing of the decks may not be a bad thing because David Moyes doesn’t use the vast majority of his bench anyway. Losing Danny Ings, Maxwel Cornet, Thilo Kehrer, Pablo Fornals, and Said Benrahma would really have little or no impact on results because they don’t play. It would certainly create space for some of the talented youngsters in the academy.
Transfer window splash Hammers face busy January with Tim Steidten in charge
Earlier today, Hugh wrote that West Ham could expect to yield £30-£40m in January to spend on players; personally, I’d buy one. Yes, as daft as it sounds, just one player for £35m of a similar calibre to Alvarez and Kudus would improve the squad beyond measure because David Moyes would use them. Like many, I’d certainly be interested to see what Tim Steidten could rustle-up with another £30m.
As for the remaining places on the bench… I’d use the academy players. There would still be senior members in the form of Ogbonna, Cresswell, Antonio, and Mavropanos, so why not fill the bench with a few of the younger players? The likes of Cornet, Kehrer, and Benrahma are lucky if they play 5 minutes per game at the moment, so what do we have to lose?