By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
West Ham have reaped the immediate benefits of the club’s policy to keep hold of their key players.
Sure, we might have sold Mateus Fernandes and Crysencio Summerville, but not too many expected the likes of Jarrod Bowen, Taty Castellanos and Konstantinos Mavropanos to remain at the club following relegation.
As Claret & Hugh exclusively revealed back in June, the club made it clear to senior players and their representatives that they intended to keep the majority of the first-team squad together for a promotion push.
At the time, there was understandable scepticism over how many would actually stay. Indeed, I went through the squad myself and rated the chances of each key player remaining, with several looking far from certain.
Premier League quality should make the difference
The hope was that retaining Premier League quality would give Nuno Espírito Santo the foundations to fire the Hammers straight back to the top flight.
There was plenty of evidence against Portsmouth in the Carabao Cup to suggest that Bowen and the rest may simply be a little too much for many Championship defences.
Taty’s finishing was too much for Portsmouth’s defenders
Keeping the captain was particularly important. Back in June, there was growing confidence that West Ham could persuade Bowen to stay, despite the obvious attraction of remaining in the Premier League.
The same applies to Mavropanos. There was considerable interest in the Hammer of the Year, but West Ham opened talks aimed at keeping the Greek defender for the promotion campaign.
So well done to West Ham’s board of directors for giving Espírito Santo the foundations of a very good team.
Taty offers a glimpse of what’s to come
Of course, more signings still need to arrive and nobody should pretend the squad is finished.
But watching Taty bag a brace against Pompey at the London Stadium was enough to get most Hammers fans salivating at the damage he could do in the second tier this season.
I’ve always felt Castellanos could be one of the best players in the Championship if West Ham managed to keep him, and the early evidence certainly hasn’t changed my mind.
There is still plenty of work to do in the transfer market, but retaining players of this quality was always going to be just as important as recruiting new ones.
Against Portsmouth, we got our first glimpse of why.
Did Koppen put a price on these elite players that Nuno must have?
Whose encouraging haggling tactics (recruitment team?)
Which direction do they go cometh eleventh hour and team is not where Nuno envisaged.
Who will be person that the incriminating finger will be pointing at.
Need Tatty and Engels or Jordon James.
Might be best to re post this 23:01 on Tuesday 1st September mate in terms of who we’ve retained.
Fingers crossed on the incomings.
We need to keep Taty, but if we sign Ernes from Celtic I think he will leave
Mind you the way we are messing around we will not get him with Notts Forest now looking to step in
Only our selves to blame, should just pay up the asking price quickly, or another good player we are going to loose after wasting all transfer window, supposedly chasing him??