From earlier reports in the Autumn we know that West Ham United are considering looking for talent in the domestic leagues rather than risk the Fullkrug ‘being unable to settle in the UK’ scenario recurring: Several of the signings made in the summer have found it difficult to get upto the speed and fitness required for the English Premier league. Jean Clair Todibo, Guido Rodrigues, Carlos Soler and Fullkrug have all looked short on pace when starting their West Ham career: On the flip side, Wan Bissaka, Summerville and Kilman , who were all recruited domestically, have looked more or less ready to hit the ground running in the Premier League.
So if The Hammers are moving away from automatically working to an ‘overseas is best’ transfer strategy mantra there are distinct advantages.
One such championship player has again cropped up in reports of being linked with a January move. First covered earlier this season, Emmanuel Latte Lath is again linked with West Ham after a report from Italian football outlet tuttomercatoweb.com. (The former Atalanta striker is still of interest in Italy hence the origin of the report). Whilst Middlesborough and boss Michael Carrick would be desperate to hold on to their striker who’s now netted eight times so far this season, West Ham have sent scouts on more than one occasion and have now made an enquiry for the January window, according to the report.
Ipswich Town tried and failed to transfer him after a £20 million bid in the summer so he will not be of the ‘bargain basement’ variety – but then I wonder if West Ham have learned anything from their Jhon Duran experience that once targeted, they need to pay the going rate to bring their chosen player on board. Rightly or wrongly, if Luis Guilherme was worth over £20 million, a striker who is ‘too good for the championship’ would be a snip at £30 million.
Whether 25 year-old Latte Lath qualifies as a ‘top quality’ striker addition (Gonzo, yesterday) will remain to be seen. I suspect Hammers fans would be underwhelmed if Kudus was sold on to raise cash and Latte Lath was the marquee signing which resulted. Much also depends on Niclas Fullkrug – if he stays at London Stadium then West Ham would need to bolster their attack, not start from scratch. In which case Latte Lath would make a lot of sense.
Homesick and want away stories regularly appear from “top sources” from within West Ham.
We know this continuous narrative only benefits two people at West Ham.
These same two people – Sullivan and Brady are the the ones who are preventing West Ham progressing and achieving success.
Gyokeres and Duran were Steidten choices playing in English leagues that were not followed up on due to decisions by others, we ended up with Fullkrug instead.
The same might be said of managers, Amorim and Hoeness were on Steidtens list but others thought Lopetegui to be a better appointment.
It seems to me that we have chosen our own downfalls.
Sullivan needs to let go of his power and ego.
Unfortunately not appointing a progressive coach to replace Moyes is going to make things even harder than this summer.
Will Sullivan learn?
We have the data driven recruitment team in place. Hoeness could still be an option at the end of this season.
Summer 2025 will tell us everything we need to know about our intentions of becoming a club that has true vision or just an owners play thing.
Let’s hope now Kretinsky has sealed the Royal Mail deal he can activate his buyout option of West Ham at the end of the season.
Kretinsky trusts Steidten and appointed him. Sullivan and Brady hopefully will be gone along with Lope the Dope at the end of this season!
It’s the only way we will achieve anything as a club.
Very impressed with Amorin and how he deals with the media and leaks / dressing room unrest.
Man Utd have given him complete trust and the backing to rebuild the club. They also ditched Dan Ashworth to operate with a data driven recruitment model.
Main Utd kept faith with their own dead man walking with Ten Hag who brought in players he wanted on top of vanity signings like Ronaldo made by the Glazers.
Sullivan deemed Amorin not qualified enough but the biggest club in England are rebuilding and looking to restore former glories with this guy.
Think we all know Steidten needs to hire the next coach and Sullivan needs to take a back seat.
Once again you state unequivocally that players from abroad struggle to settle in the premier league which is laughably stupid and a rather lazy trope as other teams don’t have this problem. As for this bloke god help us if the club see him as the answer, there is no way he is good enough to be the main striker at the highest level and should we buy him he will join the ranks of useless strikers brought in under sulli
Only seems to be Fullkrug that gets mentioned. Strange how this fits Sullivan’s mistrust of our DoF who he seems hellbent on scapegoating for his own failures.
Fullkrug came about only after Duran had been made impossible. Fullkrug wasn’t Steidtens first choice so not Steidtens fail.
We all know this John.
C&H constantly throwing shade at Fullkrug and Guilherme to scapegoat Tim just shows where the allegiance is.
I think most of our squad “are unsettled” under this clown coach appointed by Sullivan.
We will have trouble retaining and attracting big name players in the summer due to Sullivan and the woeful coach.
It’s nearly January so silly season is upon us with links to anyone / everyone that has a pair of football boots.
No thanks.