West Ham could be close to spending much the same as last summer – £200 million – in the transfer window when it reopens.
However, the club will not be digging into financial reserves revealing instead the sale of Declan Rice and others will provide the spending power.
Rice and Arteta
The Hammers are refusing to budge from the £100 million plus they want for the skipper having struck a gentlemens’ agreement that he can leave this season.
Arsenal appear to be in prime position to sign him although the player wants to be sure he will win is medals and recent years have shown there is no certainty of that at the Emirates.
However, he is definitely on his way and a top source at the Hammers told us that others could join him with all funds being used to buy more players.
Manu Lanzini could definitely be on his way along with Ben Johnson and possibly Gianluca Scamacca which were that to be the case could bring the transfer kitty up to around £175 million.
He told us exclusively: “We’ll spend what we raise from Declan and other sales.”
So nett zero spend then?
Like every Premiership club, West Ham are going to have to spend £50mil. just to stand still.
If a club wants to compete with the top clubs, £100mil. minimum net spend.
To be blunt can we afford to give Moyes any money to spend? In my view he spent money last year on players without any idea how they would fit into his system of play and certainly with no thought of changing. On evidence Moyes is the worst manager to assess, sign or develop strikers in the league. He had no clue with Haller then signed Scamacca and Ings and played them in ridiculous Vardy-like roles for their proven skill sets. Also Fornals, Benrahma, Cornet and several young players, hopeless development and deployment