West Ham have marked down Monday June 25 as a key date on the summer transfer window schedule.
That’s the day when Manuel Pellegrini will explain to the board how he wants to cover the dreadful loss of Manu Lanzini.
The new boss and director of football Mario Husillos will be telling the two Davids exactly how they intend to address the problem and how he sees the £70 million transfer kitty being stretched to cover their needs.
With no certainty over Lanzini’s long term situation they will possibly decide to bring in a loan player or drop his early hopes of recruiting one central defender instead of two.
Should that be the case they need to decide whether that is Alfie Mawson, Chris Smalling or the highly rated Issa Diop is the one they really want.
Talks are continuing on the two players but Pellegrini will have the last word on whether it’s one or other or both.
The hope remains that up to five players can be brought although it looks inevitable that they will include one or two loan additions.
A loan addition is probably the best way to go, and probably the way they will decide. Some possibilities have already been mentioned. One was the younster at Man City, and also Pavon would more likely only be a loan.
If they chose to buy both Mawson and Diop which I hope they do, then to lose one of the existing CBs could be the way to go anyway. Some would say Reid is the one to go, but I would rath it was Ogbonna.
It will all surely depend on who we sell also.
If Antonio (circa 25m), Obiang (15 to 20m) and Cresswell or Ogbonna (15m) were to be deemed surplus to requirements, then that could make the 70m go a darn sight further. Couple that with the likes of Snodgrass (10m) and Fernandes (10m) then we have quite the war chest if some shrewd moves can be made.
Losing a centre back makes a lot of sense, or even two if were bringing a couple in, given that Kouyate can play there, Rice can play there and in all liklihood Zabaleta or Cresswell could in a pinch too.
The squad doesn’t just need boosting, it needs rebalancing and some intelligent tuning at that.
I really hope the order of choice for signing a new CB is Diop Mawson then Smalling. All 3 would be the stuff of Championship Manager with Reid and possibly Ogbonna being sold t leave us spending 60M and getting close to35/40Mill back.
Signing a player like Diop would be a massive step forward for WH at his age he could command 3 or 4 times his fee with a good season or two.While Smalling would be a quality signing he would have little resale value and that is where the Hammers need to improve in the market buy younger players improve them over a couple of seasons and if a mega offer comes in sell and reinvest plenty of clubs across Europe at it and cant see why a big club in London couldnt do the same