West Ham United’s summer transfer plans are once again being choked by financial restraints—and the situation is becoming somewhat tedious. The club have made it abundantly clear we need to sell before we can buy, but there’s one major hitch: nobody wants to buy our players.
With cash flow said to be tight and zero appetite from the board to dip into their own pockets, the Hammers are left scrabbling for funds. PSR figures suggest we could spend up to £90 million without breaching financial rules, but that would require a shareholder injection—and there’s little to no chance of that happening.
Instead, West Ham are relying on the departures of key names like Mohammed Kudus, Edson Álvarez, James Ward-Prowse and Nayef Aguerd. The problem? No serious bids have landed.
This has left Graham Potter stuck in neutral while rival clubs race ahead with their recruitment drives. Even his most loyal backers would admit he needs his own players to truly implement his style of play. Unfortunately, he’s been unable to improve the current squad—and without funds or support, there’s little hope of improvement on last seasons struggles.
So while clubs like Aston Villa, Brentford and Brighton are sealing deals and strengthening early, West Ham are once again forced to watch the window unfold with frustration. Sure, it’s early on in the window and many clubs have yet to do business but few need new blood as desperately as we do to avoid struggle next season.
This isn’t just a concern—it’s a necessity and if the board don’t dip into their pockets now, they’ll be forced to in action in January out of desperation.
Long transfer window. Open until September and we all know we don’t buy anyone until the last week or so.
Can’t see any club doing much at the moment apart from Manchester City, ain’t nouri, Chelsea getting Delap and Liverpool with frimpong. Nottingham Forest have bought 3 or 4 cheap unknowns but apart from that nobody is spending.
Championship here we come, with love from the board and Sulivan lol
Very interesting. This is the first time that I’ve seen specifics regard PSR (IE ability to spend £90m) and the fact it is cash flow that is the issue. This makes sense given the window to renew season tickets opening way back in March (?).
I wonder if the issue is that one or more shareholder/s is willing to put money in but only on an equal basis. The Gold family are unlikely willing, or more possibly, able to given they are trying to sell their shares.
Whatever the case maybe, the fact is we are entering the rapids without a paddle in sight.
No sale on the horizon reduces the chances of getting our first, second or even third choice for each position. More to the point, it limits our chance of getting the number of players we need.
Potter’s claims that we ‘dont need’ too many players make more sense now ……code for I don’t think we will be able to get many players.
I seriously wonder how Brady convinced him to take the job, however good/bad anyone may think he is, it feels like he’s been sold a real pup.
I beginning to wish I hadn’t bothered renewing my season ticket…….still may not have too next season if we are in the Championship, there will be a multitude of empty seats!
Gonzo, I’m just waiting for the headline ‘Don’t panic Mr Mannering’ but you have to laugh January’s window was non existent and you would have thought some movement in the market other than the Cummings lad. Didn’t we buy and loan back a young player from Paris FC but no update. I just don’t understand the reason for pre-season tour when half the player’s won’t even be signed and like, last season new signings will be 6 weeks behind everyone else. Then there’s the never ending International Break’s and it’s stop, start making it even harder for new player’s forge and understanding of the player’s. around them. Talk about being set up to fail I just hope we’re in a much better position when the window reopens but on past experience it doesn’t seem that likely does it!
Gonzo is quite right . Too many owners with either a third or a quarter of the shares and then another quarter in limbo . Westham could easily spend 100-150 million on new signings because firstly they have a whole year to balance the accounts ( financial year ended May 31 2025 ) and secondly they’re worth 15 billion between them . The only issue is not wanting to dump money into a potentially bad investment . Kretinsky doesn’t have the power with 27 percent to implement modern systems and so he won’t waste any more time and money on the sh1t show that’s Westham . While Sullivan and his cronies are there Westham are doomed with an inevitable relegation within the next few years . Can’t dodge bullets every season .
While other clubs move forward with new stadiums and state of the art training facilities we are stuck with a terrible ground and Rush Green portakabins. It seems like Sullivan is giving up. Tired of all the excuses. Teams are making moves in the transfer market whilst we sit still. Last season’s dire performances was a terrible advert for any of our players and has wiped millions off of nearly everyone’s potential transfer fee. Something needs to give at our club or we will be left so far behind there will be no catching up.
Send “Mohammed Kudus, Edson Álvarez, James Ward-Prowse and Nayef Aguerd. “, out on lone, instead of selling. Why not, so much rubbish is spouted on this platform.
Up the Hammers and down the doubters.
You should see AFC Bournemouth’s new state of the art training campus, unbelievable, whilst we stagnate and regress both on and off the field, honestly it’s just embarrassing the majority shareholder and board should be ashamed for their lack of strategic planning and a series of poor judgements. They just talk about Champions League football, never going to happen!
Jan would be a case of too little too late. You would think there would be a desire to protect their investment because relegation would be an utter disaster. As things stand we do not have enough quality to be anything other than relegation fodder,
Exactly this. We’ve got it the wrong way round. The money could be borrowed now, even from the owners, and repaid later in the window.
This nonsense lets every buying club know we are desperate so surprise – no or low bids which we may need to accept.
We’ve lost any negotiation power and will get less money in and probably very late in the window when the buying options are much lower.
Just seems amateurish, you would think over the months before the window there would be serious plans formulated . The plan seem to be to see who sells then see who is available and how much time is left . Very risky for a virtual whole team rebuild
Nobody will be remotely surprised by this. Years of spending big on players only to sell them on for next to nothing is coming back to bite us. We’ve not had a clear transfer plan or strategy in all that time. We now have to sell out of form or just generally poor players, who nobody wants to bankroll our transfers. We were lucky this year with 3 very poor sides below us. Without significant investment I don’t think we’ll be so lucky next season. Imagine The London Stadium half full in the championship.
I feel like West Ham is being run down with nobody taking responsibility to manage and run the club successfully and build for the future. Feels like they have turned the lights off and gone home!