By Sean Whetstone
West Ham have committed to spend up to £90m for the first six signings of the summer.
Nayef Aguerd is said to cost £28m in transfer fees, paid in instalments to Rennes with another £3.5m in potential performance-based add-ons, with the total fee up to £31.5m
Signing Alphonse Aréola cost the Hammers a £7.5m transfer fee to PSG with a further £3.5m in potential add-ons, taking the potential fee to £11m
Flynn Downes is reported to have cost the Irons £9.5m with a potential £2.5m to Swansea over the life of his contract costing up to £12m.
Gianluca Scamacca will cost the Hammers £30.5m with another £5m of potential add-ons.
Maxwel Cornet is reported to have cost the Irons £17.5m from Burnley
Add to that West Ham’s sixth signing today Thilo Kehrer from PSG for £10.1m + up to £5.9m in add-ons according to French reports.
That adds up to a massive Hammers potential outlay of £123.5m including add-ons.
With Issa Diop sold to Fulham for £15m and Aji Alese to Sunderland for £500,000 that leaves a net spend of £108m this summer with more to come
West Ham are expected to conclude a deal with Chelsea’s Emerson Palmieri for around £15m and could yet land Brugge’s Hans Vanaken for a further £10m.
To conclude transfers for those pair would bring the total outlay to close to £150m or £135m net spend this summer.
Credit where credit is due, despite it seemingly taking forever and with the January transfer window being a missed opportunity, West Ham are making some very astute signings, with the latest, Kehrer, potentially being the best centre back at the club. With Palmieri seemingly about to resolve the issue at left back – and as a permanent signing leave the door ajar for a possible loan deal with Chelsea for Gallagher or Broja – and interest in a central midfielder still very clear it looks as though the gaps in the squad are being addressed. With Ashby and Coventry being given opportunities, it is to be hoped that, at last, Moyes may start to integrate the best of our Academy players into the first team squad.
A big spend but for me there is not a “wow” signing among them. Feeling a bit underwhelmed tbh.
Let’s hope the GSB out and dithering Dave critics will have a bit of a rethink! However I am an optimist!
To whom do we send our “thank you’ letters Sean?
To be fair to DM, he has tried for better players. Problem is, there isn’t anything particularly enticing about WHU, making us a fall back option for most of these players.
I also think the World Cup break might help us, as I think majority of our players will be staying home (correct me if I’m wrong) giving them some valuable rest before 2nd half of season. Ironically, this may be the season you can get away with using a small squad.