The signing of Ryan Fredericks on a free transfer carries on a tradition of not investing heavily in the right back position although it could be argued Fredericks combined £4m signing on and agent fee makes him a record investment in that department.
The official transfer club record for the right-back role is held by Sam Byram who joined from Leeds in 2016 for £3.8m and before that, it was Guy Demel who joined the Hammers from Hamburg in 2011 for £1.75m.
The likes of Pablo Zabaleta, Alvaro Arbeloa, Rob Jones and Joey O’Brien were all free agents.
Carl Jenkinson, Robbie Stockdale and Lionel Scaloni were all loans while Glen Johnson, Sam Westley, Callum Driver, Adam Newton and Jorden Spence were all Academy products.
Right backs we actually paid transfer fees for includes Tim Breaker £900,000, Jonathan Spector £750,000, John Pantsil £1.5m, Gary Charles £1.2m and Tyrone Mears £1.5m. Ray Stewart signed for West Ham a record £430,000 in 1979 making him the most expensive teenage footballer at the time.
West Ham sold Glen Johnson to Chelsea for an initial £6.1m which later rose to £8.3m with add-ons which means the net spend on right-backs over the past 20 years is actually very little.
Although Thomas Repka £5.5m Julian Faubert £6.1m and Michail Antonio £9.5m have all played in the right-back position none of them were bought for that role.
No mention of the great Sebastien Schemmel?
One has to factor inflation into these prices – Tim Breaker was a very decent buy -and about 27 years ago 900,000 was a reasonably high fee
I think that Ryan Fredericks could prove a decent investment for what has often been a problem position
Fredericks would have cost £15 million if he wasn’t a free agent.