Everything seems to have gone suspiciously quiet on the transfer front following West Ham’s signing of El Hadji Malick Diouf from Sparta Prague.
Last week saw a brief flurry of activity as the Hammers spent just under half of the Mohammed Kudus wonga on Diouf. So, if my dodgy maths are correct, Graham Potter should still have the best part of £30 million burning a hole in the pocket of his cream Umbro joggers.
Speculation around bids for Harvey Elliott and Douglas Luiz appears to have been killed off—though to be fair, those rumours were barely believable to begin with.
Potter himself has stressed the importance of working with West Ham’s new signings during pre-season. But as things stand, he has just one through the door (and no, I’m not including Daniel Cummings or Jean-Clair Todibo).
The Hammers aren’t alone in their inertia—Fulham have signed nobody, and Crystal Palace haven’t exactly been frantic—but most clubs have been busier. Brighton & Hove Albion seem to be signing everyone, and Sunderland are spending like a team serious about surviving in the Premier League.
West Ham face Everton, Bournemouth, and Manchester United in a Stateside pre-season jolly-up at the end of the month—and frankly, we look poorly stocked.
One suspects David Sullivan has been handed Potter and Kyle Macaulay’s list of targets. Now it’s time to get moving and actually do something—especially when it comes to sorting out that pesky, still unresolved, midfield issue.
Kante also is new so would say two new players
Are you sure there’s £30m left from the Kudud sale as we have had to pay up for Todibo. If I remember correctly he was on loan last season and we were obliged to buy him this season…
We desperately need a striker!!!
I think we should sue the F.A over the fiasco of Lucas Paquetá if he is cleared. That would have been money in the bank to help us improve our squad, but all this delaying is ridiculous.
Not easy to bring in the number of players we need, at the age and quality we require, when we have such a small budget.
Gonzo, calm down there’s 46 day’s remaining of this window and we all know our majority shareholder and board are more than capable of squandering every single penny! Let’s do due diligence and buy sensibly for the long term and invest in the club’s future not just the 2025/26 season. You said yourself that Potter is just the coach to stabilise the club, both on and off the field so let’s have a sense of perspective and hope that the season to come is a good one 🤞🏻
I am very calm Paul mate, certainly didn’t want to come across as agitated or panicked.
But it was Potter who said he wanted players in for pre-season to acclimatise. I actually suspect the due diligence has been done by Macaulay already, hence the reason for the hurry-up.
So, going by this logic, it’s the owner who’s dragging his feet.
I was amazed at the outpouring of uphoria when we signed Diouf, it felt like this was the final piece of the jigsaw rather than an untested (albeit highly regarded) young player in the premier league, I guess we have all been concerned to some degree about our inactivity and it’s understandable that people reacted positively but the idea it was the start of an impending rush to more signings was somewhat bewildering. Sulli must know who the recruitment team want so perhaps it’s time he gave potter the very best chance to succeed by getting players in for potter to work with in what’s left of pre-season. Cheers
So much for Graham Potter’s “interesting and exciting” transfer window then! One new player to bed into the team to take to the USA as it stands. So I won’t be surprised to see some horrific defeats for us against Everton, Bournemouth, and Manchester United. It might not be all that jolly.