David Moyes has claimed that he and the club showed great ambition in the winter window but in the saw it close to remain entirely frustrated.
Having missed out on bids for strikers he added that in his view it would be difficult to find a better back-up to Mikey Antonio than Jarrod Bowen.
He was also keen to pile praise onto the board whom he described as “fantastic ” adding that they had been really ambitious and probably made three record bids towards the end of the window.
The manager continued to insist that he had to buy top players and wanted the fans to know that he wasn’t ready if you like to settle for second best.
In a lengthy interview at https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2022/february/02-february/manager-david-moyes-speaks-west-ham-tv he covers a lot of ground on the wheeling and dealing that apparently went on as the window progressed towards its close.
Describing the end of deadline day as a “long long night” he said: “ I would have loved to have said we’d got everything done and dusted early doors but, look, it wasn’t for the want of trying, that’s for sure.
West Ham supporters can be reassured that we were really ambitious in what we were trying to do. We were really ambitious in trying to get good players and players who could help us and make a difference.
We’ve also got Jarrod Bowen and it would be very difficult to get a better back-up to Micky Antonio than Jarrod. We were always looking to try and find replacements in several areas, but it just became pretty difficult in the end and we missed out on one or two late on.
Overall, all I can say is that the Board have been fantastic. We probably made three record transfer bids from the Club in this January window and let’s be fair, January is never really a great time.
We’ve been quite good in January in the main and in the last few Januaries we’ve been here we’ve signed players and sort of done quite well, but this one for some reason became tougher.
I also believe it’s probably been tougher because we’re looking at a much different level of player now and trying to attract some of the top players throughout Europe.”
He added: “I think that’s one thing I want to do is I want to make sure that the supporters at West Ham can trust that I’m trying to spend the money wisely.
And we’re trying to bring in good players but also, we don’t want to bring people in who I think are only here just to pad it up and maybe makes everybody in the media think that we’ve done a bit of good business. The idea in this job is to try and sign good players.”
Well show ambition pick up Costa.
Wrote it ruled out
Its interesting now when I think the rumours that WHUFC were trying to get Duje Ćaleta-Car on a loan deal because Premier League clubs may not register more than two players on loan at any one time. Now was it really a straight buy attempted. So it appears we have been fed another load of rubbish. It’s seems rather strange when £50+ million bids are made public than can’t the extra dosh at a lower level to push a deal through.
I agree with the policy of fishing for bigger higher level quality players because that’s what we all wanted at the end if the day isn’t it. We were linked with hundreds of lesser players in the media but who is to say any of them were actually true? Was we trying to sign Duje Caleta Car even? Maybe in a previous window a year or two ago but Duje Caleta Car doesn’t sound like a record signing to me.
Personally, while I get that the squad is thin, I have trouble disagreeing with Moyes here. We are trying to sign a better quality of player than in previous years. That makes it harder to prise them away from their existing clubs.
If I am conducting a review/appraisal and I ask someone whether he/she has achieved their aims and the response is “I was really ambitious in January, but I didn’t achieve my specific task and, in fact was an abject failure” what do you think my response should be?
All Moyes/Newman/Recruitment Team needed to do was sign two/ three players and couldn’t manage it, even though the players of the required quality were available despite Moyes’ protestations. This incoherent transfer policy where seemingly random and increasingly desperate bids flying around was frankly bewildering, particularly when £15m couldn’t apparently be found to sign a proven international centre back.
I am still amazed that there is still this mantra that a back-up for Antonio is needed. The stage has now been reached where we need a replacement.
Even Lingard would have been a non runner with the two loan players. Noboby seems to have picked up on that point. So any deal would have to have been a straight transfer. Over the recent years the fans have been fed a possible marquee signing only for the deal to fall through. Even Duje Caleta Car would have been an upgrade..The Leeds players I just don’t believe. I think the board are keeping their powder dry for the close season for a few free transfers.
The reality seems to be based on evidence we left everything to the last few days, if we hadn’t we would have evidence of those rumours being solid earlier. That left us trying to scramble at 7pm to rush through a transfer for Zapata that failed if we started days earlier what might have happened? As for the Leeds players Bielsa was always going to knock them back so I have no idea what led us to believe otherwise or was it all just a smokescreen?
I can agree with Moyes it’s harder to get better players out of their clubs and also that it is important to buy players that will improve the team rather than squad fillers. What I want to see next window is an improvement in getting deals done for those targets