16 Comments

Market changes but Irons policy seems the same

davidsullivan_726I do wonder whether we have learnt our lessons from last Summer and whether the individuals in charge of the transfers have realised just how much the market has changed in a year.

Last year we chased Carlos Bacca who failed to give us an answer in a situation which has all the hallmarks of the current Oliver Giroud chase.

Last summer we chased Alexandra Lacazette putting in a lower TonyHenry_726 (1)bid that the club valued him despite him saying he wanted Champions League football. We allegedly put in a bid of £40m. One summer on Arsenal paid a record £46.5m for his services.

It was the same with Michy Batshuayi where we put in a bid of £30m last summer which was lower than both Crystal Palace and Chelsea.

For some bizarre reason, we believed that Chelsea would sell him Frustrated Slavto us for the same money they purchased him last summer even though it is a seller’s market for strikers.

Our mentality must drastically change if we are to succeed in this new world order and crazy transfer market. David Sullivan, Tony Henry and Slaven Bilic will need to think differently.

At the end of the season, Tony Henry did an interview on WHUFC.com where he talked about just 2-3 players incoming over the summer but stressed than quality rather than quality was needed.

Sorry, but a last minute bid for Andre Gray on transfer deadline day won’t cut it for me.

 

 

About Sean Whetstone

I am Season Ticket Holder in West stand lower at the London Stadium and before that, I used to stand in the Sir Trevor Brooking Lower Row R seat 159 in the Boleyn Ground and in the Eighties I stood on the terraces of the old South Bank. I am a presenter on the West Ham Podcast called MooreThanJustaPodcast.co.uk. A Blogger on WestHamTillIdie.com a member of the West Ham Supporters Advisory Board (SAB), Founder of a Youtube channel called Mr West Ham Football at http://www.youtube.com/MrWestHamFootball, I am also the associate editor here at Claret and Hugh. Life Long singer of bubbles! Come on you Irons! Follow me at @Westhamfootball on twitter

16 comments on “Market changes but Irons policy seems the same

  1. You can see it, we can see it, worrying the club can’t. We just don’t seem to get the balance right…if we want top names, then we need to pay top money. If we don’t want to pay top money, we need to lower expectations.

    Both come with risks and, as I’ve said before, some of our best signings in all the years I’ve been going have been the latter of the two options. (And yeah, so have been some of our worst before others point that out.)

    But realistically, we’re not yet in a situation to attract top names, so lets get realistic.

  2. I still say that this policy is to do with season tickets.Look at the names that were mentioned last season,as you say,Lacazette,Batshuayi etc.Now look at the names mentioned this season,Iheanacho,Giroud,Walcott,Hart.Who did we end up with last season,Tore,Zaza,Arbeloa.This season where are these names,nowhere to be seen but we have again sold 52,000 season tickets.Such support for a club that doesn’t give a damn about its fans.

  3. Very good piece couldn’t of put it better …if they want to push on with the big clubs they need to pay up..like batshuiyi when we bid lower than palace and Chelsea and we wonder y we can’t land our Targets.. I’m afraid with the money the prem generates teams will try to take the pi** so to get thee targets we will have to suck it up and pay bit extra.. But I do think the 30mil Everton payed for Pickford was way to much so with in reason of course

  4. I actually think Andre Gray would be one of those realistic moves that could actually work out for us. He knows how to score, knows the Prem, is hungry and could flourish surround by players like Lanzini and Antonio. A lot of the negativity towards seems to really come from the fact he’s not a glam foreign player.

  5. From what I can see we are not bothering to spend that much, of the money generated by the Premier League on new players, that is being used to pay of our overall debts as a club, but not those to our owners, who will when the time is right sell up for a vast profit. Until then they will be the one’s loaning us money for transfers and charging way above any bank rate for their loans I read 7% but I dont know. The thing is they need to kept the loans at a responsible level to encourage any possible suitor, anyone have to pay the owners loans of plus £100million because of transfers on top of buying the club is going to think twice so don’t look for any spending that is better than previous years because it wont be there, these two are businessmen they are there, because they say they love the club, but more importantly because they are making money from the club. Finally we must remember that the papers come up with a lot of the names, when any player becomes available the papers look to put them to a club who needs them. This therefore means that any striker becomes a WHU target according to them, this then spreads across all the media so becomes a fact, when it is not. I monitored the Daily Mail summer 2015 where they linked us to 154 different players between 1st May and 30th Sept really thats current journalism for you

  6. Majority of links to players have been created by the press. Not the board who, have been refreshingly silent. Knowing our supporters we would sell the 52,000 S.Ts anyway. Some seriously under rate our fan base.

  7. We moved stadium to progress to a top 6 challenging club ?? Personally I think the twins will sell the club as soon as the tax restrictions are lifted on the sell on deal !
    There’s clearly no desire to pay top dollar for players or wage structures , unless we spend big we remain exactly the same as under the cearns , brown etc, they knew as do the twins that west ham supporters will always come in their hordes because that’s what we do !!
    Sully has always talked the talk but as I’ve mentioned before he’s got short legs 🙂
    Better the devil you know some say ? But unless we start spending big we are a small club in a big stadium, might just as well stayed at the old girl , dig deep sully or face criticism ,
    the que is forming ,

  8. So we should pay £40 million for the likes of modeste because it would seem sexy to fans we have spent big money on a player.If we sign someone like Gray and he scores goals most fans wont care how much he cost or what nationality he is.

  9. If we could buy lacazzett for 46mill or gray for 15 mill Ben , who would you buy ?

    • But we cant sign that type of player because they are at the top of their game and will go to the bigger clubs.Thats why we have to be realistic and set out too sign players we can attract.
      Spending £35 or £40 million on a modeste type would be financial suicide and the club shouldnt do it for the sake of pleasing some grumps.

  10. Ducks and bums as tight as , springs to mind . But that doesn’t mean we should pay someone 140k/wk . To my mind 100k is easily sufficient . It’s just my point of view , others will think differently of course . There are a lot of overpaid players out there already . Big money doesn’t necessarily mean they are big players .

  11. We are not alone in this,Rafa at Newcastle has today been bemoaning the crazy money in this window.I dont want us to be held to ransom by anyone one.Especially players who are mediocre but think they are the bees knees because the market is mad.

  12. I agree Sean with everything you have written and have said similar in replies to other posts, the market has moved on significantly players are earning 3 or 4 times what they were, the money we want to spend only buys you potential now, if you want established top quality players the salaries are over 100k because China has inflated the salary market, clubs also are being allowed to bank players and loan them out like property, there is a way to fix the market much the same way as the property market you don’t allow clubs to hold so many assetts and you do away with the loan system completely then the best players will be spread more evenly around and the prices will come down because there will be more players available.

  13. ‘We’re going for quality rather than quality’ – eh!

    Aha!! I think I’ve spotted where they’re going wrong!

    • …..at least Andre Gray’s looks like a Footballer you know, plenty of tats, sullen attitude – a sign of too much time on his hands and more money than sense – should fit right in!

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