Ogbonna promised a new deal but 34 this year
David Moyes will need to find several replacements and additions to the squad in the summer as age and ending contracts catch up with the Hammers.
Midfield is clearly one area that needs to be beefed up with Mark Noble retiring, Andriy Yarmolenko’s contract expiring and Alex Kral being allowed to leave whilst it’s clear improvements are required in defence and additions up front of course.
The club have promised to hand Oggy – 34 in May – a new deal once he is recovered from injury whilst it looks a certainty that Issa Diop will be sold and replaced whilst up front a striker has to be found.
Cresswell – age catching up
Other departures may include Ryan Fredericks on a free and goalkeeper Darren Randolph but beyond that the manager will also presumably be looking to add the quality players he has been looking at given the bid for Kalvin Phillips.
With Cress hitting 33 in December a long term left back and back up is required and one or two others in a variety of positions should we be looking to maintain a top four/six position.
And all of this has to be done in a hurry if we are to convince Decan Rice that the club is proceeding in a winning direction and that he should stay.
Nobes – retiring
We reckon the club needs a minimum of eight or nine replacements/additions and can only hope that the manager will adopt a full speed ahead agenda come June.
The boss has a big job on hand which needs to be completed pretty quickly come summer,
Agree with all of the outgoings you listed. He needs to be decisive on two fronts I would suggest, in strong signings and grooming young players. It’s frustrating to see reports of interest in 21 year olds in Europe when we have our own – just commit to them and bring them on along with more oven-ready signings. Be assertive please DM.
There is absolutely nothing different apart from time passing in the situation of the last 3 transfer windows . It is gross mismanagement to allow the club to be in this situation . Is it a surprise that Yarmo and ‘Festas’ have run out of legs … it has been clearly evident . Defensively Moyes has been a little unlucky as he might have got away with it without Oggies injury and Diop loss of direction . Up front he has no excuses . Let a top striker who he insisted in playing out of position leave for peanuts without having a replacement lined up and then failing to make genuine effort to buy . Plenty of smoke screens but zero fire .. Can Moyes salvage the situation ? I don’t think he has any chance what so ever .
Rob Newman and team have got the next 4 months to seek out potential signings and earn their corn!
There also needs to be scrutiny of our Academy/ under 23s as this really needs to be in future the main source of recruitment.
Even Man City and Chelsea now source most of their players this way with the odd marquee signing. The Financial fair play rules make this a priority.