November is here and the transfer rumour mill is in full swing – if indeed it ever stopped. The Hammers needed a striker and a defender – bare minimum – but news that Niclas Fullkrug wants to cut his losses and quit the club means the Irons have to roll up their sleeves and bring multiple players in, sharpish.
Fullkrug’s agent has confirmed the transfer hasn’t worked and that he wants a return to the Bundesliga to try and rekindle his form ahead of the World Cup squad announcement. According to Sky’s Florian Plettenberg, ‘West Ham remain relaxed’ about Fullkrug leaving.
Excuse me for not being ‘relaxed’ but actually being pretty excited at the prospect of making good one of the worst transfers of the summer of 2024.
Tim Steidten’s recruit has flopped monstrously after spending over half his time out injured.
Just nobody say ‘we told them so“. Doomed to fail at 31 with a high mileage body, seemingly everyone except Sullivan and Steidten could see what was coming. The only positive from the sorry saga is that even David Sullivan won’t make the same mistake and blow another €30 million on a 31 year old again.
Fullkrug’s a lovely guy and five years ago, we’d have loved him at West Ham: Now fans just cannot wait to wave him goodbye and see someone pull on the shirt who can actually make the starting XI on a regular basis. The couple of moments last Sunday when veteran Callum Wilson behaved like a proper striker and backed into defenders to move them around and allow a teammate a clear shot at goal just shows us fans what the club has been missing for a couple of years.
‘Striker starvation’ ends in January. Who, how old, how much, and where from remains, worryingly, in the hands of David Sullivan. But with Fullkrug officially wanting out, there’s 100% not going to be another window pass without a frontman addition.
You are never going to find a young “proper No. 9” because they stopped making that sort of striker 30 years ago and Guardiola’s fantasy football killed the model dead.
It’s not Fullkrugs age that matters, after all we bought Dicanio. When he was almost 31 and he didn’t turn out badly did he. It’s the amount of money we spent on him. Although you don’t get much if a striker for that money these days.
At the time I was more of a TS fan than against him but in hindsight you have to say along with Loppy and Potter he has contributed to our demise. Looking at all the transfers in that window (I know sully picked some and Loppy picked others) they were apart from AWB a complete waste of money. Some players did have some genuine ability Soler, Todibo, and imo, Killlman but have either gone downhill fast or not consistent. Hopefully after Sundays game the two CBs may start to improve.
Fulgruk should never have been bought because of his injury record alone or at least not for the money we paid
Not sure why it hasn’t worked out for Fullkrug he had a good preseason, Potts played in all those teams so maybe that affected him… Playing it relaxed is a good move imho if we can get £15-20m for him then it’s worth selling otherwise hold on and buy a striker anyway. Marshall looks like he needs to be part of a double act and we could possibly get a few million for him if we can’t shift Fullkrug, he is in that zone too good for u23’s not quite there in the first team. Or loan him to the championship to try and develop him and see if in the summer he is better ?
I struggle to get excited simply because under Sullivan we have an awful record at signing strikers. Add to the fact it is January and we are likely to have modest funds I am not optimistic on signing someone who makes a difference.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t sell, reduced wage bill and a few funds to add to the summer budget from the sale of someone who rarely plays is still worthwhile.