By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
With West Ham expecting another £35-40m from the sale of El Hadji Malick Diouf to Brentford, I think most supporters reasonably expected the Hammers to spend some serious money during the final days of the transfer window.
Instead, the latest names being linked hardly scream ambition.
Reiss Nelson, who has mutually terminated his Arsenal contract, is once again being mentioned, along with former Burnley midfielder Josh Brownhill and Everton centre-back Michael Keane.
Where Has West Ham’s Transfer Money Gone?
In this video, I discuss my concerns about West Ham seemingly returning to the bargain basement for journeymen despite generating an extraordinary amount through player sales this summer.
West Ham’s headline summer sales have now reached £200m, with the £40m Diouf deal the latest major departure.
Yet we’re still discussing free transfers and short-term solutions.
Nelson, Brownhill and Keane may all have something to offer, but after selling so many valuable players, I think it’s perfectly reasonable to ask one very obvious question.
Where has all the money gone?
I can answer that, in someone’s back pocket on the board.
I believe the monies generated from transfers OUT are being saved for a transfer war chest when we get back to the Premiership.
We will need to come within spending limits when we get back as it is geared to the big six remaining the big six and not letting others into the mix so we will need a large war chest to even compete when we get back
Easy answer. To service the bankruptcy level debt Sullivan accumulated. Don’t pay the debt, we have no club.
Exactly. It amazes me given just how often the debt has been mentioned, yet so few seem capable of remembering it exists.
I wonder at times if people want us to wind up as a Leicester? We simply cannot bankroll many big transfers and nor can we attract high calibre talent. It’s the reality we live in for now.
I think we all know where the money has gone, clearing the club debts and trying to restructure this football club into a proper club being run properly as a business and not a monopoly board game by DS & KB.
seriously disappointing not to see some of the huge amount of money the club has done well to recoup in player sells not reinvested into the club for new players.
I understand the blub want to get the recruitment right we cannot maintain poor recruitment spending big money on players that just do not fit or play well.
What is happening with Gold shares ? the fight for this clubs ownership came at the wrong time, once again nothing is simple supporting this club,
We ain’t buying Brownhill. Bet you anything you like. God knows where that rumours come from.
Bargain transfers and not good enough for premiership if indeed good enough to win promotion . Where has all the transfer money gone for Summerville etc etc we need a statement of direction from the board and what’s going on with shares and stadium . Sullivan needs to sell up and leave the club as he is holding the club back now . Thanks for what you have done in the past but your not now it’s future by hanging on .
I can not understand why people hold DK in such high regard? Okay in comparison to Sullivan yes he is a great man. But in terms for what he has done for our club I would say very little. He got good prices for the players but it’s only any good if some of that is reinvested .Reading some of these paranoid comments I didn’t realise we had so many conspiracy theorists as supporters. Stavely and Sullivan plotting against DK, Give me a break.
I think you are right gonzo whilst these players might, get us out of this division what next a fire sale and try and build a complete new team? Simple choice Reece Nelson or the Norwegian Elvin O. One is free with a horrendous injury and club record the other is a small price with possibly a bright future. I know who I would go for but I don’t think it’s who we will end up with. Bonzobo is right Sullivan has virtually no influence now.
The one that did annoy me was Parrott. Can’t understand why we were not prepared to pay £17m on a young striker with top level potential. Apart from that I have been quite impressed with the business we have done. Veltman and, if we can get him, Keane are smart ways to improve the defence this season. As others have said, if we get back to the prem, that is when we become attractive to the likes of Disasi. Plus it gives us more time to develop Mayers and Golambeckis. Very excited by the potential of the midfield and again Brownhill would be a smart move and add experience in there. Piroe and Solomon are decent buys for the here and now and if we get promoted they will be useful options to have. Would like us to show some ambition and go for the Norwegian winger but generally I am encouraged by yhe direction of travel given the mess in the boardroom.
A mixed approach might have provided WHU with a reasonable alternative: go for those low cost squad players that are still needed, and reserve an actual reinvestment sum for a key position, say a quality centre back, one that will still be ok once promotion to the PL is attained. After all, the plan was to reserve the required sum to bring Disasi back into the team.
I think Keane and Brownhill would definitely improve the squad, add a bit of English grit to the side, which we haven’t really seen since Cresswell, Dawson, Rice, Noble etc. I would’ve taken Brownhill over Ward-Prowse when we were linked with him years ago.
The comment that we’re a Championship side now is the most sensible.
Theres no point blaming the club about transfers – if you were a footballer plying your trade, would you be convinced by the West Ham “project”? I certainly wouldn’t!
The only reason we’ve made big money signings in recent years was by flying Steindten around in his oversized white t-shirt offering stupid wages, but really the only truly solid and consistent signings were probably Bowen, Dawson and Soucek and that purple patch of Lingard on loan.
If we now want to reset and manage club finances properly, then lower league punts, loanees with something to prove or Prem level veterans is all we should seriously expect and hope for this year.
Sorry to disappoint mate but we ain’t buying Brownhill that’s absolute hogwash.
Loan or buy short term proven players who will get us promoted and then look to spend bigger money. If Nuno had done that last year when we was in relegation difficulties instead of risking 50m on Taty & Pablo we would have stayed up easily.
You are missing one important point…the Amanda Staveley bid was engineered by Sullivan, to increase the value of his shareholding and to stop DK taking control of the club. Sullivan, despite having to resign from the board, still pulls the strings. That control freak will never give up control until he gets a huge payout. He destroyed this club and he will continue to do so
Sullivan is still the majority shareholder and owner of West Ham!!
David Sullivan 38.8%
1890s holdings a.s** 27.0%
Vanessa Gold on behalf of the Family Trust 25.1%
WHU LLC* 8.0%
Other investors 1.1%
https://www.whufc.com/en/ownership
JWP was sold for £1m because he was a Moyes signing and Sullivan wanted to prove a point.
Our fans need to wake up from their slumber and realise that Sullivan is calling the shots again.
38.8% is not a majority, and is easily outvoted by the combination of 1890 and Gold.
Ergo, Sullivan is not able to make substantive decisions on his own.
If you’re going to comment, at least get the facts and basic arithmetic right,
The money will be used to pay off debt. Notwithstanding that There is no excuse for signing Nelson. Lots of wingers in step 5 who would run rings around him. It’s not like he is experienced as when not injured he doesn’t get picked anyway.
Your video is a bit of mickey take Gonzo.We all know where the money has gone, its not hard to work out. The situation would have been absolutely fine if DK had been allowed to become majority shareholder as planned and invest the £90 million. But the Gold and Staveley offer messed that up for absolutely everyone. So with West Ham making a £104 million loss, DK’s £90-100 million would have covered that, then we would have been selling to buy as was expected, so it would have been a very decent budget after what we have sold. However with that £90 million not being invested due to the ownership landscape changing and DK not being the majority shareholder, there is no way he invests the £90 million as planned. So plans have had to change to be able to deal with the delays created by the pre-emptive rights process. Also, the Staveley offer means that DK will have to buy the Gold shares at a higher price to become majority shareholder, so more of DK’s money wasted to buy shares that could have been used as part of the budget for players. Until the ownership situation is sorted, it means we are financially hamstrung and what ever players we can get through the door will hopefully be enough to do the job. But you are trying to play devils advocate, we all know that if things had gone the way I hoped it then it would have been a good window, but Gold and Staveley managed to completely ruin that, and then try and play the spin doctor game blaming DK for not having liquid assets. I know who I believe and it isnt some of the rubbish mentioned on Talk Sport from Borson!
If Kretinsky had had bought the agreed Gold shares then Staveley wouldn’t have become an issue. But he didn’t, and after all, business is business. He wants control without spending too much, which leaves the door open for any new investor.
The operating losses weren’t the huge problem many thought; lots of clubs operate with balances in the red but are going concerns. The recent player sales clear that debt anyway, with a substantial surplus to spend.
Kretinsky can still get whatever he wants, just not on the terms he wanted.
Gonzo’s question was where has all the money gone which as I said was easily explained. Not really sure what you’re point is?
I think Dudley has it right, we must have cleared the debt now, but I think serious money for player purchases would have come from the Kretinsky cash injection, which of course will not now happen
Not only that but where is the data driven recruitment that was talked about in the more professional set up with Koppen? The journeymen and freebies even Sullivan could source. Only Engels seems to be a find.
Not much seems to have changed at all.
We’re now a championship club.
Any player good enough to command a significant fee wants to play top flight whether in Prem or abroad.
Why do you expect us to sign expensive players?
Exactly! I don’t get why C&H keep going on about it. It’s not exactly rocket science. The squad is good enough now to push for promotion. If we get there, THEN use the money to buy expensive players. If we spend all our money on championship players now, then that’s who we’ll be stuck with if and when we’re promoted.
It seems obvious that they’re holding money back for if/when we get promoted. No good going into the premier league potless. We are not getting nowhere near the revenue we were getting in the EPL so the money has to come from somewhere. With all the takeover fiasco we certainly won’t get any cash injection from share holders
Not getting premiership money? Parachute payment, 50m+ of the wage bill, half price stadium, extra games for match day revenue. 200m in sales and 30m in purchases? Are you sure we are not getting more money than finishing 15th?
Could you not ask one of you’re in the know club contacts. They seem to be able to answer everything else.
Quite agree
Was expecting some top signings, but not so easy to get when not in the premier
I am quite disappointed
Not a lot to cheer about, but there are still 5 days
Let’s hope they surprise us and are doing deals behind the scenes
Gonzo Brownhill and Keane were linked with us 2 years ago I smell a rat here and your right as we all are to ask WHERE IS ALL THE MONEY GOING
With whu what you expect and what you get are two entirely different matters.
The question is how much does Sullivan have a say in these transfers?
Who is making final decisions and pushing the button (or not).
Koppen targets identified and then swept under the carpet, why?
Engels big Koppen statement that he got his man really anybody that can negotiate would have got him.
Sullivan has O involvement in the day-to-day running of the club. there you go
Where has the money gone? We had large payment commitments now and in the future for players we had bought in the past, and yet very little incoming money from players we had sold. Now we have funds to match the outgoing commitments. It makes our finances much healthier.
Going on a transfer spending binge would put us back to square one and we shouldn’t need to spend a fortune to get out of this league. Now if and when we return to the PL we will be on a much better financial footing, and then be in a situation to buy the players we will need then.
Why don’t you ask you ‘source’?
I believe the issue is that we don’t yet have a strong enough squad to be sure of promotion. So while the likes of Keane, Brownhill and Nelson will perform adequately we still need to spend money on skilful, younger players. This is because they are the ones who will not only help us return to the Premiership but improve their skill set and also their value. Furthermore they are more likely to continue in the team than the aforementioned veterans, who will have no re-sale value if/when we reach the Prem. £10m/£15m will buy this type of player, so even if the Diouf money was made available it would make a massive difference. I fully understand that we have debts to service but it is incredibly short-sighted not to re-invest any of the £200m. I can only hope that we sign at least one young, exciting player before the transfer deadline to supplement those we already have.