By Dave Langton
David Moyes is unwilling to spend big on a striker this summer because he believes Mikey Antonio can continue to lead the line for at least another season.
We have reported that the Hammers boss is interested in Armando Broja at Chelsea, but that deal would cost around £25m. 
And Moyes is not willing to spend much more than that as he looks to ensure his budget stretches as far as it possibly can.
Mikey is 32 but he is likely to again shoulder the burden of leading the line for the majority of 2022/23, unless Moyes has a significant change of heart.
Targets such as Darwin Nunez and Ollie Watkins are simply too expensive, and there are other areas of the squad that are deemed more of a priority, with there being a pressing need to sign at least two midfielders, as well as a central defender. The Irons will also sign Alphonse Areola permanently.
This is not to say that West Ham will not buy a striker but Moyes is seeking value in the market, and would rather cap his spending when it comes to securing a centre-forward.
If Broja was available at £25m would snap him up all day long, he has all the attributes to score goals and also be a pain to defend against, reminds me of Arnautovic but could be a lot better as he is only 20.
As for sticking with Antonio, that experiment already failed every season, we need at least one or two strikers to provide different threats for when Antonio is either injured or off form, it cost us at least a Europa League slot this season.
Mr Moyes is delusional if he genuinely believes we can go another season with our (most forward player) I won’t call him a striker as he most definitely is not one.
I cannot believe Moyes would gamble our next season in this way and whilst other team members are chipping in, they should be additional goals and not instead of what you would expect a striker to provide.
It is essential that we get a skilled front man and whilst we do need to strengthen elsewhere we need to remember that you win games by scoring more goals than the opposition.
I sincerly hope that this though process is not true.
Doesn’t surprise me personally , slow hands , as I like to refer him to, is mot up to speed with most supporters thoughts. No real movement apart from an already accepted purchase of areola .
He’ll go again this year with a thin squad, which he prefers, and west ham as a team will fall short again.
Those who quote this football club as being top half for finance must wonder is it because of the money they take from areas of incoming revenue and ignore the investment required to continue to compete against the Premier best to line their pockets.
Watch this space , investment in aging has beens and out of contract wannabees and a new season line up yet again of near the top aging overall team
With maybe a couple of additions like vasic who won’t get the chance to shine
And Antonio, bless him, will give us 8 goals 8 assists and goodbye success 🙌
the guy cannot finish to save his life. Has about 6 great games a season and the rest, sadly, he is genuinely useless. When he goes through 1 on 1 with the keeper he has about a 20% chance of actually scoring. He’s a back up striker at best – Howwww can Moyes not see this?
I suspect David Moyes is fully aware that the big name/ticket strikers will always migrate towards Champions League clubs so pointless pursuing them. Just need to find another Jarod Bowen!
Always at my most sensitive after just shelling out for my season ticket but this is deeply unwelcome news. Playing last year without a striker was frustrating till we got to January, after that my blood was boiling that we failed to act in the window… and watched good strikers go into clubs around us for affordable fees.
Nobody thinks that Antonio is up to the job do they? He wasn’t last year, he won’t be next year.
This seriously needs to be the club downplaying its ambitions while beavering in the background to get some proper deals done. Or we will quickly back to the toxic atmosphere of a couple of seasons back.
Is it possible he’s just trying to keep potential transfer fees down. If he was to come out and say “ yeah I’m desperate for a striker” then every selling club knows and holds out for a high price accordingly. Maybe he’s just playing it cool. We can only hope.
You don’t need to spend a stupid amount of money.
I would rather 3 Bowen/Fornals/Soucek than 1 Pogba/Lukaku/Grealish.
Our job is to buy well, and eventually sell players for far more than we got them for, in order to return to the start of this sentence.
It will be moyes out if he doesn’t wake up from his sleep. How dumb can you get not to see Antonio isn’t a striker anyway and lucky was injury free last season. Let’s see what moyes does though and I don’t mean bringing in Brownhills because it’s cheaper.
That’s a joke if we go another transfer window without signing a top striker Antonio is useless has 5 or 6 good games a season and that’s it he’s technically poor and no composure whatsoever could really backfire on moyes if he does this
Am surprised we haven’t gone in for Keane Lewis-Potter from Hull, same place as Bowen and looks a real handful, Broja deal will probably not be possible until start of pre-season as Tuchel the thinking mans Harold Steptoe wants to look at his loan players before deciding on them.
As a supporter, the players that I would like at this club are probably unreaalistic and I would personally want the club go out and out spend Citeh and Newcastle combined. But I have ZERO knowledge on the financial side of the game or business for that matter. It has taken me years to understand that there is a financial side to the game, even though the figures being bandied about at times sound like monopoly money to me.
After Eggy and the finacial collapse, I realised that there we’re financial consequence and that there are still plenty of club’s fighting to come back from that out of the blue event… Covid.
As a West Ham supporter, ALL of my wishes have been surpassed……..and then SOME, during the short time Moysie has been in charge. He is steadily BUILDING this club, in the BEST way possible.
Pellegrini Style or Moyes Style……..
I know which one I prefer, therefore I believe that unrealistic transfer talk should be tempered and put into context……..we’re NOT Citeh!
I absolutely agree, this is part of a process and the last 2 seasons I’ve been able to watch almost every MOTD instead of avoiding like the plague because we were bent over in matches and had no identity whatsoever. Let Moyes get the players he wants, I trust him to bring in the neccessary players over the next 2 transfer windows, and I’d expect them to be players our current squad are in some way familiar with. I for one don’t want a reapeat of Bilic’s second season where we went on a signing frenzy, lost the team spirit they had when we finished 7th (which Moyes has equalled and better in the last 2 seasons), and then boom, relegation dogfight.
100% AGREE
This Antonio bashing is madness from some proper armchair heroes. Antonio had some storming games last season, he didn’t return a huge goal tally but the team did and he contributed massively to that. He scored one less than Watkins (valued 50M) and 4 more than Jimenez (bought by Wolves for 50M). We scored 60 goals as a club and he was probably involved in some way with so many of them. He was overused and not getting a second striker did cost us but he gave everything he had on that pitch when played. I firmly believe we will get at least one decent striker and possible someone we’ll be taking a punt on but I don’t think any of them will put their body on the line like Mikey does.
In the name of all that’s holy, please tell me you’re joking! He didn’t lead the line effectively this season so why anyone could think he could do it next season is completely baffling. It’s that kind of thinking that cost us a much better league position and, potentially, a European final. And his name is Michail, not Mikey for Pete’s sake.
We overcome great odds to even be in that semi and Mikey was crucial to us being there where we lost out due to some poor defending and to a team who play a similar style to us. I don’t think you know what “leading the line” is, a forward in this system needs to bring other players into the game, move defenders around to create space and provide an outball to relieve pressure or counter. That’s what Mikey does. Who would you like to see us get then that could “lead the line”?
Oh no, no, no, no! Hasn’t Moyes seen what we’ve seen all season, and before? Antonio is not a natural striker and never will be. What West Ham needs is a top class striker, but that costs money which Moyes seems unwilling to spend. If we don’t bring in someone like Broja or Watkins then I can envisage a struggle to get out of the bottom half of the table next season, or worse. I cannot believe that Moyes, and let’s not forget he has a coaching team too, would be dumb enough to rely on Antonio solely for another season. Surely he can’t be that stupid, or is he just waiting for the money from the sale of Rice in a year’s time? However what the majority of West Ham fans don’t want is a seaon in limbo where we make do with a cobbled-together squad. The jury is out on Moyes and his transfer dealings, so I await with some anticipation but mainly trepidation what the squad looks like when the window shuts. Let’s wait and see.
Is it the 1st April 😂