Several Premier League sides did not enter the winter transfer market at all: West Ham however managed ten departures and five arrivals in a fairly frantic four week recruitment shake up. Nuno’s chosen word for it – rebalancing – hardly seems appropriate as the board engaged in some pretty straightforward cost cutting.
However it wasn’t all about economics, according to a new report out this morning by the New York Times, analysing and ranking every Premier League signing.
West Ham’s Taty Castellanos hits tenth spot in the winter arrival rankings, according to author Tim Spiers:
“The man known as Taty is an energetic, hard-working forward in the Nuno Espirito Santo mould. He and fellow new signing Pablo have transformed West Ham’s attack so far, helping Jarrod Bowen and Crysencio Summerville to thrive. Given West Ham’s perilous position, though, it’s hard not to see the 27-year-old Argentine being loaned to Espanyol in the summer (option to buy, £28m). Good addition for now, though.”
Ranked as West Ham’s best winter signing: Pablo Felipe needs goals though
And fellow attacking signing Pablo Felipe is ranked higher at ninth:
“The 22-year-old, who was born in Portugal and raised in Brazil, had been one of the form strikers in the Primeira Liga with 10 goals in 13 matches for high-flying Gil Vicente. He scored an 11-minute hat-trick against Boavista last season. On early evidence, West Ham have signed a terrier-like forward, but they’ll want goals too.”
The NY Times is, not surprisingly, a little less generous in the rankings dished out to the remaining Hammers signings: Lamadrid is 32nd out of 33, Axel Disasi 20th and Traore 18th.
Top of the winter rankings? Manchester City’s signing of Marc Guehi for £20 million. Some things never change.
At least the Irons’ two new front men appear to have given Nuno a different game plan which proves to be anything but boring: Whether the Hammers have enough to avoid the drop will depend simply upon outscoring their porous defence who cannot keep a clean sheet to save their (Premier League) lives.
Ah The New York Times. My go to source for all things Premier League related.
Torare 18th!
Incredible that Man City get the best players for half the cost but such is the draw for the player. Players want to go there to play and win things. Man City seem to get double the value for the players they sell on. When the money men at City first arrived City used to play a premium because everyone knew they had money. Now it’s the other way round it seems to me. When you’re at the bottom like West Ham you have to pay over the odds to get top players. Probably why we don’t buy any.
Sorry that’s incorrect. They go there as Man City blasts rivals out of the water for wages. Guehi is on, wait for it, 300k per week.
Taty and Pedro are energetic and before they’re spent we are defending from the front. Good buys in that sense but we’ve not spent overall and we’ve saved on wages too.
We budgeted this window not spent on survival. It’s a roll of the dice, hopefully enough, not pushing the boat out.
We don’t really deserve to get away with it but I hope we do.
That’s not a good place to be as a fan is it, it’s not been a good place to be as a fan for some time.
To think Guehi went for £20m and Harwood-Bellis’ asking price was similar. I know Guehi’s contract was up in the summer but still…
Guehi was desperate to join West Ham to further his career too.
🤣 Nice one Taffy!