Fans vote on who to stay and who is to go
Ahead of the window opening next month, the website Football London asked West Ham fans which of their current players they would like to see kept or sold this summer.
Based on the readers’ votes, supporters opted to keep 20 of the 25 players asked about, with the remaining five sold this summer.
The biggest name on the list is striker Danny Ings, who only joined West Ham in a £12million move four months ago from Aston Villa, potentially rising to £15million in add-ons.
Ings has not delivered the amount of goals West Ham had hoped for, scoring just three goals in all competitions, two in the Premier League against Nottingham Forest and the other against Gent in the Europa Conference League. In their poll, just 37,8% of readers voted to keep Ings beyond this summer.
Also on the list of players readers voted to get rid of were Coventry (42.9%), right-back Ben Johnson (37.3%), midfielder Manuel Lanzini (37.1%) and Vlasic (23.5%), with the quintet all having keep percentages of less than 50%.
What a ridiculous poll. Why isn’t Declan Rice top of the list to keep with 100%?
A few players like Manuel Lanzini whose contracts are expiring, will be leaving on a free – so to sell them isn’t going to happen. Personally, I’d offer Manuel an extension – you don’t let 30 year old experienced players that good go on a free (unless they want to).
Flynn Downes has to go. Seven starts resulting in seven defeats is his record in the Prem. When he starts, we lose shape as an attacking unit. Flynn just isn’t good enough at this level, nor is Conor Coventry.
I can see why Danny Ings was let go by Aston Villa. Graeme Souness said at the start of the season that if Moyes wants to play a certain way with Michail Antonio up front, you sign an understudy who plays in that style. He was right. (Neither Ings or Scamacca do that.)
The summer transfer window will be interesting.
I hate to agree with Graeme Souness, but that makes sense.
Substituting the excellent Mikhail Antonio for Danny Ings means West Ham have to change the style of play to accommodate him. As we saw, from Ings, he kept dropping deep to see the ball, was too slow running with or chasing the ball and manhandled by centre-backs.