Better late than never, West Ham’s summer window saw nine arrivals – two on deadline day – as the club finally got their recruitment act together and filled some of the squad holes left by eighteen post-relegation departures.
Whilst some have yet to pull on the claret and blue shirt for real, there does seem a sense of a ‘job reasonably well done‘ even compared with where the Irons’ threadbare squad was, just four weeks ago.
Engels looks to have made week-on-week progress whilst Edwin Austvø’s debut showed promise last weekend. Deadline day signings Morata and Adama Boiro will hope to feature this afternoon.
Whilst their prowess on the pitch has yet to be tested, skipper Jarrod Bowen believes they’d all pass the “Moyes MOT” – meaning they have the character needed to fight for the shirt and the club. Speaking to whufc.com, West Ham’s captain said:
“We’ve got really good characters that we’ve brought in, so that’s credit to the recruitment side for the players that we’ve brought in, as they want to be part of a group which does something special this season.
“There’s going to be hard moments, there’s going to be tough games, so it’s important that we rally together as a group, and I think you saw the fighting spirit that we have on Tuesday night…
Bowen: New players will add to the fighting spirit
With the new players who have joined the ones who were already here, I think we’re in a really good place and we’ve got a really good core”
Now that the boardroom drama should give way to off-pitch stability, the players can do their part and step up the results after a win midweek: Three points this afternoon will see West Ham catapulted back towards the top six and have everyone around London Stadium feeling a little bit better about life.
Another near sell-out capacity crowd can judge for themselves how far the squad has come with its new additions in terms of ‘fighting spirit’: Just getting to half time without conceding would be a good start.