The folly of operating with just three centre-backs has been exposed as everyone except those recruiting at the club seemed to believe it would. £40 million on Max Kilman largely blew the budget for two players which meant West Ham have been operating one centre-back short since Nayef Aguerd was dispatched on loan by Lopetegui late in the summer window.
Mavropanos’ silly second yellow card against Crystal Palace now gives the head coach a big headache. The Greek defender now faces a one game suspension for next Sunday’s away game at Aston Villa: Max Kilman is, with colleague Todibo’s layoff, therefore the only available first- team central defender.
The outlook for Kilman’s injured team mate Jean-Clair Todibo is not good either. In the article from the standard.co.uk headed “West Ham: Graham Potter leaves door open to new signing amid centre-back shortage”, the head coach explained:
“JC [Todibo] is going to be a while before he comes back, so there’s no immediate solution there. It’s a calf strain and lower-limb issue. He’s going to be a bit of time yet. We have to look for what we have.”
Todibo – lengthy layoff?
Which means stand-in centre back Edson Alvarez will be called upon, further weakening an already brittle midfield – or 20-year old centre back Kaelan Casey will be the next youngster drafted in to the match day eleven as well as the senior training squad where he has been working in preparation for just such an eventuality.
West Ham already turned away from the ‘free transfer’ market in August when they considered but chose against bringing in a fourth centre back – Joel Matip or John Egan were options – on a ‘Bosman’ to give them cover. That doesn’t look such a good choice now.
Is the budget there to bring in a striker and a centre back? We all fear we know the answer to that. Somebody tell the new head coach the bad news.
So we bring Casey in, no worries. Like Scarles, he is overdue an opportunity, has pace and takes pride in pulling on the jersey. Stop the constant catastrophe headlines and give youth a chance. Throwing money at the problem isn’t always the answer.
To me it’s obvious – you play Soucek as a centre back. It doesn’t detract as a goal threat as we still have him for set pieces. It also might speed up the midfield which is way too slow. Come on Tom, you are our utility man. No one questions your attitude, work-rate or willingness. Do one last job for us before Moyes pinches you in the Summer.
Time to play Casey. At 20 he should be near ewady to step up. So let’s find out if he is good enough!!
Pre seasaon has started, need to look long term and see if players like Casey, Orford and Scales can learn, develop and be valuable for next season. As even if Casey makes mistakes they will be no more than Mavropanos. Board should place a Recruitment cap on age and not be looking at any players over 25/26 years old. Due to sell on value, reduced injuries, energy and building a successful team.
There will be a clear out of players over summer due to age and contract. Fabinaski, Creswell, Ings, Antonio, Emerson, Caufal, Irving, Rodriguez and probably Solar as wage to high and only a squad player. Perhaps also get Earthly back from Bristol to be integrated and work with Potter as on bench and used as a sub. Potts will replace Rodriguez next season
I’d keep Fabianski & sell Areola for a younger long term keeper who will be the No 1,also bring back Hegyi as 3rd choice. Irving is costing us nothing and isn’t anywhere near 30. Solar is only on loan anyway. Realistically,we need a new long term goalkeeper,a back up RB,a LB,at least one CB,midfielder,probably two strikers,and a wide forward. That’s going to be some creative transfer activity next summer.
Martin you put an article out a few hours ago . Urging the club to go and get the Brazilian striker. Now we’re skint. There’s way too much clickbait on the site since Hugh’s passing .
did you read the last line of my article? ”is the budget there to bring in a striker AND a centre back?’was what I wrote, so, with respect, I didn’t say ‘we were skint.’
and the previous article refers to freeing up money from selling Guilherme.
Another central defender is not essential as you alluded to Alverez can play there also cresswell or Casey. What is far more important is signing two strikers
God is there ever any positive news to wake up to ….villa will rip us to shreds if they don’t buy some players quickly….so depressing 😔
This is a problem that predates Lopetegui. Even with nine players brought in last window we still didn’t either build or balance the squad.
Nine wasn’t enough, that is with nine being a ridiculous number to start with.
We make our own problems with poor decisions. The squad should never have become so old and depleted in the first place and we’re still paying the price of that. Poor and non recruitment predating Lopetegui.
I could not agree more mate ..100% spot on ..the clubs been run so bad ..and the way we go about our transfer buisness is to be blunt absolutely atrocious….so so bad…they never seem to have a plan at all ..and they NEVER learn buy there past mistakes …the fulkirg transfer says it all really
It all comes down to keeping Moyes for too long . He openly admits to liking a small squad . And the likes of cresswell coufal fabianski and Antonio were finished at the top level in 2022 . The morning after the conference league parade was when the club needed to release DM and push the boat out for a top drawer manager. Instead Sullivan was too worried about a media backlash and here we are .
Too scared of a backlash by fickle fans, I’d have thought.
The crazy thing is that Jlo and Steidten didn’t increase the “small squad “. It might have worked for Moyes but one size doesn’t fit all. Moyes had no real interest in the last January transfer window once he saw that his new contract offer took away control of transfers so we are effectively a window behind