West Ham United have already been looking in great detail at the January transfer market: Midfield recruits and the mythical under 30 year old striker must take priority. It is suggested across differing sources today that ‘various players’ want out of the club after the turbulent five months of Lopetegui-ball.
Joining the dots on what we already know, there would seem some ‘likely deals’ which could be done in the January window to free up space in the squad. Let’s get this clear early on, this is opinion rather than based on ITK comment.
Unlike the August window, technical director Tim Steidten will need to show his skill at selling rather than just spending David Sullivan’s cash. The club have maintained that player exits need to happen both to provide the budget but also to free up the payroll:
Nayef Aguerd £20 million currently on loan at Real Sociedad: Is apparently also being looked at by Real Madrid. Either club could easily part with the cash to make his loan permanent.
Edson Alvarez – £30 million -the red card liability has often hinted he is open to a move to a big club: Time to offload.
Guido Rodriguez £10 million – send him back whence he came. Enough said,.
Niclas Fullkrug £15 million – if we are lucky – on past performance he’d probably get back into a Bundesliga squad.
Michail Antonio £2 million – if we believe the Galatasaray rumours of today. A loan striker would be just as effective but probably younger.
This is without the ‘nuclear option’ of a sale of Mohammed Kudus which could be done at £85 million in January: My guess is that his agitation for a move in January will depend on the head coach’s identity come the opening of the window. Rumours this week have linked others such as Vlad Coufal and Tomas Soucek with moves away.
Providing upgrades come in, I’m not sure any of these squad players might be off limits. I’m not working out the ‘losses’ on purchase prices, that’d be too depressing. Remember that their value is amortised over the length of service, so some won’t show as loss.
The job- appeal to any prospective ‘incoming’ Lopetegui replacement will be far greater knowing that the squad can be freshened and the gaping midfield shortcomings at least can be addressed in January with that kind of budget. So when the club states ‘ no budget for new signings unless players are offloaded’ – don’t be too downhearted. All things are possible.
Scarles has been tried in the middle, and still at the club, and was on bench against Everton.
He would be worth trying out over the next two games, impressive as a 16 y/o in Europe, added a couple of years experience since then
Definitely could do with a young dynamic player in the midfield!
Love the idea idea of £10M for Rodriguez. To somebody who hasn’t seen him play I am assuming?! After all, I can only guess that is how we ended up with him in the 1st place!!
i cant see anyone buying fullkrug loan and part of his wages at best, i dont think we should sell alvarez maybe get him a young midfield partner with a lot of pace to give our slow midfield a boost, maybe we will need to sell kudus,if we get a new manager in shortly maybe he will have his own list of comings and goings and different ideas sullivan might back up with money, because i tnink we are 3 on the bounce defeats away from a relegation battle, however bad the next few weeks are for us i can still see sullivan keeping avram mk2 a while longer
I might not agree with C&H but at least I get to voice my approval or disapproval regarding what we discuss as fans 👏
I don’t even bother with the other fan websites for this sole reason.
Rodriguez and Antonio will both have to leave on free transfers! We might want a fee but it’s ludicrous to think either will generate any funds.
We tripled Rodriguez salary and so will more than likely go for nothing if he returns to Real Betis. Maybe Messi can lure him to Miami, but I can’t see a fee higher than £5m and that’s optimistic.
Antonio is older than the Brighton manager so can’t see any takers at £2m.
Fullkrug can go if he is fit 🤷♂️
Don’t see any club spending big money on Kudus until the summer. If Salah went Saudi in January then maybe, but I think both will stay until the season ends.
Tim did a pretty good job offloading Zouma, Kehrer, Benramha, Aguerd and JWP.
If he got £10m for Rodriguez we would need to build him his own statue though 🤣🤣🤣 That would be the magic trick of all magic tricks!
£10m for Rodriguez?!!
Agree with a lot of this but not sure that it’s fair to label Soucek as a squad player given how poorly all the other midfield players have performed this season. Would rather keep him and get rid of the others but in reality I think we might have to sell Kudus to make the necessary repairs to an unbalanced and under performing squad. The decision to let Earthy go on loan is also looking a bit suspect if you ask me and Irving should be given a chance, at least he would put a decent shift in.
Agree about Soucek and Earthy!
Agree re Earthy, same as Potts and Ward Prowse loans(even though I’m not an admirer he’s better than Rodriguez!)
Surely Lewis Orford is more mobile, energetic and could provide Alvarez with the youth & fresh legs?
JWP with Soucek / Alvarez didn’t work last season, but he’d be a better option than Rodriguez.
Was £10m a typo and the 0 wasn’t intentional?
More likely it was a typo and the 1 was unintentional.
🤣🤣🤣🤣 spot on 👌