Hammers nerves emerge as squad shrinks

West Ham’s paper thin squad – currently down to 17 –  is causing ripples of alarm within the club.

As we have reported earlier Mark Noble, David Martin, Andriy Yarmlolenko, Ryan Fredericks, Alphonse Areola, Angelo Ogbonna and Alex Kral are all out of contract on 30th June leaving just 17 first time players.

Alphonse Areloa’s position is still being discussed  and Oggy is set for a new contract taking the number to 19 hopefully.

Nikola Vlasic, Tomas Soucek, Arthur Masuaku, Darren Randolph and Said Benrahma could all be sold and thus far only Rennes defender Nayef Aguerd is believed to be close to agreeing a deal at the club.

The scenario is causing some nerves  behind the scenes with fingers firmly crossed that David Moyes and Rob Newman will bring in at least five new faces over the next few weeks

One insider told ClaretandHugh: “As things stand it does look a bit frightening although the manager retains the club’s confidence in the summer window.”