Whether they’re real or imagined options for bringing to London Stadium, the Hammers have been linked in the last few weeks with Brazilians, Argentinians, Mexicans – a whole host of ‘flair’ players in the coming winter window as the club try and climb the greasy pole to get out of a relegation scrap come May.
Which has come under fire in a new report today from footballinsider247.com who claim the transfer strategy is ‘all wrong‘. In their article which is a head – on criticism of whatever ‘strategy’ the Hammers might have in place, the article is a plain and simple takedown of a scattergun, unfocused and chaotic recruitment approach which they feel is likely to begin all over again when the next window opens come January 1st.
No discernable long-term transfer strategy – de facto head of recruitment David Sullivan
I have news for them. It has been part of West Ham’s recruitment DNA for over 10 years. Short term-ism, opportunism and a bit of dreaming for good measure, repeated annually, explains exactly how the Irons got themselves in this monumental mess after spending over £300 million in players in the last few years.
“West Ham United’s transfer strategy for the upcoming January window has been questioned, with the club at risk of relegation”.
Quoiting the now infamous Keith Wyness – who may actually have a point in this instance – the report states:
“Everton’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – believes that West Ham should avoid bringing in “Brazilian flair players” to help their survival efforts.”
Quite so. West Ham need ‘scrappers not artists” – which would seem to be a summarisation of the report. Fair enough.
Nuno is building a team who will fight for each other and an Endrick – for example – simply won’t have the backs-to-the-wall mentality which the Hammers will need to fight off the challenges from other desperate Premier League sides. Wyness continues:
“I wouldn’t be bringing in Brazilian flair players. I would not be bringing in South American talent to a British winter when you’ve got that sort of battle coming up. I’d be questioning my manager and my sporting director intently if I were a chief executive at West Ham.
“So let’s just see what they do. There’s a lot of talk, and there’ll be agents putting stories in papers right now about their own Brazilian players. That could be where it’s coming from, but I just don’t see it being a very clear strategy for West Ham.”
Just for once, the oft-quoted Keith Wyness and I are in complete alignment. How about that.
We have some very good Academy players who need time to develop (Kante, Earthy, Scarles, Fearon), plus additions such as Magassa, Summerville and of course Fernandes. Add to that mix a player such as Paqueta who (at least in my opinion) plays his heart out for his club, Soucek experienced and plays for the team and this seems like a good way for the club to keep progressing. Planning ahead over the next 5 seasons, developing a team with quality young players and adding experience as good as Soucek & Paqueta.
No longer sure we have the right people in charge of recruitment to keep on getting players such as Fernandes and Magassa – hope we do. I know NES in charge, but can one person cope with recruitment as well as rebuilding, reinvigorating, a team? Perhaps this January could be a one-off with NES in charge of everything, after that would be neat to have a recruitment team
The only one who looks half decent is Alexsandro but I’d prefer a move for Charlie Cresswell personally. Don’t think we’ll get both.
Keep seeing reports of Jesus up front despite him saying throughout his whole career that he’s not a striker more a 10?
They need to keep it simple decide who they want and get them.
None of this being associated with 15-20 strikers, 19 of them are just pure speculation.
Fighters Paul Hunter/Nobby Stiles?
Shall we just wait and see who comes to WHU in January before we start slagging them off?