West Ham could see seven of the current squad departing the club next summer or earlier if they receive offers or decide not to offer new contracts.
Lukasz Fabianski is of course in the last year of his Hammers career with Alphone Areola lined up to become a replacement although Sam Johnstone is still a name being widely linked with the club.
The Hammers are also looking to offload Darrren Randolph who has a contract until June 2023 whilst David Martin’s deal comes to an end in June next year.
As mentioned earlier Arthur Masuaku has fallen down the pecking order and is another the club will accept an offer for should it be forthcoming.
Ryan Fredericks has a year left in his current deal and it remains to be seen whether the club would allow him to leave next summer should an offer come in for the right back.
Manu Lanzini is another with just 18 months left on his deal and for whom the club may be looking for a fee in the summer along with Andriy Yarmolenko.
And of course Mark Noble will pull the curtain down on hos career next summer.
It always seems strange to me that with our strongest squad in a generation that talk immediately starts to talk of dismantling it. I cannot see any rationale to rush to dismiss Favianski from the squad though clearly Randolph and Martin are different kettls of fish with no realistic path into the team. Similarly Artur has had recent injury problems but he has a known capability marauding down the left in a system with 3 at the back, and has partnered well with Cresswell to increase his effectiveness as well. In pre-season and early European games we were all talking about how Moyes has discovered a deeper lying role for Lanzini in which he was far more effective. Again with depleted current midfield resources we are lucky to have him. The grass is always greener outside the club but as David Gold has said in the past you are lucky to achieve a success rate of 50% with incoming transfers, especially with some of the gambles West Ham have resorted to in the past. I think the refreshing thin is Moyes realising that he is better off looking for resources in his squad, rather than gambling on imports, yes even using Yarmenlenko . Ifr he was not a West Ham player we would have been drooling over his high quality performances for the Ukraine in the Euros rather than trying to see him dumped out of the squad. He seems ideally suited to the Europa League to me. Hopefully Newman will unearth one or two similar gems but I don’t understand the eagerness to chip away at our current squad depth and rely on untried and untested imports to replace.
I think it’s more a case of improving the squad rather than chipping away at it. Also some players won’t be happy with their lack of playing time and be open to a change of club. Wages will, no doubt, also be an element in the rationale. Can we afford to have a player on over 100k a week only making the odd appearance in European games? More, still, will be coming to the end of their careers and won’t want to spend them on the bench. There are persistent injury problems with Arthur. We could sign a fit player who’s always available for the wages. I’m pretty sure the club wouldn’t be making changes just for the sake of it, what with all the hassle and costs involved.