West Ham are running out of targets as the transfer window grinds on relentlessly towards deadline day.
There can be no doubt that David Moyes and the board are having a tough time trying to fill two seriously important positions – central defence and centre forward.
The favoured reason why this is the case among the board critics is that they won’t spend money, whilst others blame Moyes dithering for which he has now – fairly or unfairly – earned a wide reputation.
Truth is of course we need to wait until September 1 before howling in discontent or beaming with satisfaction although right now frustration and transfer window anger as always are of course on the rise.
It appears that the manager is keeping his focus on top players such as Abraham, Milonkovic, Lingard and Zouma and is having little luck in getting any of them.
As explained in an earlier piece on here, Mikey Antonio’s number one status may be a problem in finding a top striker prepared to play second fiddle but at central defence I could never agree with letting Balbuena leave particularly with nobody else lined up.
Moyes may have wanted a better option but surely a deal could have been done for The General who rarely let the team down on his various appearances.
This is not an easy transfer window from anybody’s point of view with only just over £200 million spent among the 20 Premier League clubs.
But for sure, the Hammers need to find some answers.
I thought The General left because at this stage of his career he wanted regular first team football? So more his decision than the club’s.
He wasn’t offered a new contract or contract extension, what does he take from that? We didn’t exactly try hard to keep him did we!
Moyes states he wants competition in all positions, so I don’t see any decent striker as playing second fiddle to Ant but rather challenging him, especially if he has a better injury record and can play more games than Ant will. We can only expect him to be available for 50% of our games this season on his track record to date. You are right re Balbuena, that is a big mistake and Moyes risks doing the same if they are indeed looking for a back up for Ant as none of the striker targets mentioned would come to sit on the bench, they have already been doing that, which is why they have decided to move on in the first place. What irks me the most is that we have had since Jan to plan our additional striker recruitment, since End of the season to get our recruitment ducks all in a row and we haven’t seemingly done anywhere near enough to be prepared for the challenges of this coming season. After the achievement of last season it is exceedingly poor of the club to be where we currently are and what message do you think it is currently sending to the team. I believe Rice was given assurances re additional players for this season, he must currently be feeling somewhat stupid to have believed Sullivan and it certainly won’t do anything but see him leave sooner rather than later. 9 days until we kick off and not one new first team outfield player recruited, just not good enough.
Balbuena doubled his wages by leaving, I dont think we were going to double the salary of a fringe player with no sell on value to keep hold of him, tbh I dont blame the club for that decison. If we can buy a better replacement on similar wages, thats ok by me. Remember we have a couple of younger players coming through as well in this area.
We do not have any young players coming through there that could fill in in either the EPL or Europa League, I watched all of the Pre-season games and maybe give them a taste in the cup competitions but nothing more. I am sure he would have stayed if that had been offered him but it’s now a mute point
What I like about Moyes is that he only buys players who will improve us so if we cannot sign players who are going to improve us then he is right not to sign anyone for the sake of it so the right solutions need to be found. I believe signing players for the sake of it is wrong. I just hope Moyes when he does buy that he gets top players. We need 4 in my honest opinion, we need a CB, striker, Lingard replacement and a young midfielder. I would let both Coventry and Mipo go out on loan for the season to the championship and bring him back next season.
This comment is the most sense I’ve read on this site for weeks and weeks when it comes to recruitment issues: let’s judge Moyes and GSB over several transfer windows not just this one. Moyes is no Pellegrini/Redknapp. He’s not just going to sign anyone for the sake of it; particularly, when he has a squad that finished top six last season. Don’t get me wrong: we need a bigger squad and I want to see us with a bigger squad. But we need a bigger and better squad. I trust Moyes over every other manager we’ve had since 1989. One difficult window isn’t going to change my mind on him.
No one is saying he should just sign anyone but we have had 8 mths to plan the recruitment of a new striker to challenge Ant. We might have finished 6th last season but with a little further depth in the squad, especially when we lost Rice and Ant and we would have finished 4th. We are in 2 major competitions this season which will see us play around 50 games plus, we do not currently have the squad depth or quality to do so competitively. We should just not be in this position with 9 days to go until new season kicks off.
ljd1980, my belief also. What supporter would I be, if I can turn toxic during one transfer window, on the back of what we did last season???
As frustrated as I may be at this point with the lack of transfer activity, I still make him the best manager that we have had since 1989, and I could put money on it that he is working non stop to get the right personnel in every single day. He is a man of true integrity and has an unparalleled work ethic.
Totally agree. I think we’re lucky to have him back for a second spell. This fixation with the current window is the equivalent of getting your wages on a Friday lunchtime and blowing them all on Friday night. Moyes is here for the long haul. Us fans are here for the long haul. Let’s see where we are in three or four windows’ time.
But we’re getting to the point where we do need ‘anyone’ – what happens if Ogbonna (already injured), Soucek and Antonio get injured as an example? We’re playing in 4 competitions in addition to all the travelling we’re expected to do.
We simply cannot afford to let Coventry go out on loan – who is going to play in CM if one of Rice and Soucek get injured? Is Noble really going to play 3 games a week? I can’t see it and even if he does, it doesn’t exactly bode well for us.
Of course I only want us to sign players to improve the team, but we’re seriously getting to the point where we just need bodies and even then, that will no doubt involve sacrificing some cup competitions as our paper thin squad won’t last for the 60 games we’ll have to play.
It’s completely and utterly negligent from Sullivan not to have started this process months ago. I refuse to believe Moyes said to him ‘Ah I don’t want anyone’ – rubbish. If we get to the end of the window with the squad we have, I dread to think of the deserved unrest that will follow towards GSB.
johnham1, I have got to agree with what you have said 100%
Incompetent.
Sean told us we have £85m to spend before player sales.
Is Sean a massive liar? Absolutely yes
Here is a direct quote from Hugh:
“It means that in total he is believed to have around £85 million available before the board decide whether to add more cash to the pot.”
Here is another direct quote from Hugh:
“The increase in positional money alone – coupled with the money David Moyes chose not to spend in the winter will allow the club to buy a quality striker.”
You are either a liar or you simply don’t have a clue … possibly even both!
GSBOUT CLARETANDLIE
I am a GSB out asap West Ham fan and I remember those articles but I believe they were written in good faith and using logic from money earnt and money saved to come up with the £85 million figure but the one aspect that wasn’t factored in to that was Sullivan and how we acts, so whereas that might have been the sum of money we should have available it doesn’t mean that is the sum of money being given Moyes. GSB out
‘Maybe it’s worth remembering that both Jarrod Bowen and Vladi Coufal were very late arrivals last summer and that didn’t turn out too badly.’
Bowen was a very late summer arrival alright.He signed in January 🙂
Is it just me, or year after year during the transfer window nobody seems to want to sign for WHUFC.
It’s the same old story unfortunately.
Let’s hope we get a couple in soon that are not just the scraps.
West Ham United have history in late signings . For that reason I’m not getting over excited .
Aston Villa & Spurs & City can do what they want but it won’t increase their chances of silverware . If we bow out of Europe early we can still play on in the premiership and maybe qualify again with our current squad . Might even have a bit of a cup run ; who knows . There is still three weeks to go before the window closes , so let’s keep calm . A bit like the old TV series “ stingray “ , anything can happen in the next 1/2 hour . Just showing my age lads .
The lack of transfer activity is putting out all the wrong signals to our top players who are attracting interest from other clubs. If next season is one in which as a club we start going backwards due to European demands and league performance suffering then these players will want to leave. We have to be seen to be progressing each season but I fear the coming one will be mid table disappointment due to lack of recruitment. I hope I’m proved wrong.
Lack of transfer activity to date is concerning.
I fear all the excitement and anticipation of our qualification for Europe will end in bitter disappointment .
If things stay broadly the same as they are now , Europe and cups will be sacrificed due to an under strength squad .
The failure to sign a striker to date is grossly negligent.
You cant get luck getting Lingard, when you have never made a bid.
No other clubs are struggling to buy players ..most of our so called targets have been brought by them..plus there is no dicking around they got them done without a fuss …but when we try ,problems arise everywhere, and it drags on and on and then nothing…surely that shows we are incompetent……come on something is badly wrong with the way we conduct our business….not sure how anyone can defend this …its not a cunning plan or so called leak free , that’s just an excuse,,,sounds very professional but it’s ******** imo….
I’m guessing it’s difficult to navigate your way through a transfer window for the most basic of reasons. Everyone wants to get the best deal they can for themselves. A player who knows, for example, Club A is interested in securing his services will obviously have a bigger bargaining chip if Clubs B, C and D are also in the hunt. So whilst it’s obviously in the club’s interest to get the deal over the line it’s in the player’s best interest to hang fire for as long as possible.