West Ham have been planning this squad rebuild for months. According to various ‘sources’, Julen Lopetegui even came to his first presentation with his future employers with a detailed list of planned player acquisitions. The early signs were encouraging as The Hammers splashed over £25 million on teenage Brazilian wonderkid Luis Guilherme who was seen as ‘one for the future’ and then a pretty impressive £40 million on Max Kilman, reported as our Head Coach’s main defensive target.
Rumours, rumours and apparently no action since. Apart from player departures at the end of their contracts, such as Ben Johnson and Divin Mubama, and the controversial sale of Flynn Downes to Southampton.
The most heavily reported rumours have been for a new striker, central defender and new right back. In particular, the right back situation seems to have coalesced to being a straight choice of one of two players currently at the top of our shopping list: Aaron Wan Bissaka from Manchester United and Kyle Walker Peters from Southampton.
Now we’d all have assumed that if we were genuinely going for KWP then the transfer deal for Flynn Downes would have been contingent on Walker Peters being sold to West Ham. A week on, and nothing emerges regarding an ‘inbound’ signing so: Either the deal is more problematic with prices not having been nailed down at the time Downes was agreed – which would have been a schoolboy error – or this right back was not our first choice.
Option B, then: Wan Bissaka rumours have grown in the last couple of days together with alleged worries about the players’ wages being too high for West Ham. Again pretty unthinkable as any professional negotiator would check that the target was affordable before launching a bid. However news today in The Express could easily explain the hold up in progressing The Irons’ planned purchase.
It is claimed that Manchester United want to negotiate the inclusion of Edson Alvarez as part of the Wan Bissaka negotiations, with ‘El Machin’ moving to Old Trafford and presumably, the defender plus cash coming back to East London. However much we as fans might feel that we want to hold onto the Midfielder who only arrived at London Stadium last summer, if true this report would easily explain why the negotiations are stalled. Steidten wants to acquire Wan-Bissaka, agrees a price, agrees terms with the player then the sellers at Old Trafford move the goalposts, now having the leverage to try and prise Alvarez from West Ham.
It would certainly explain the apparent lack of progress as The Hammers either need to go back to square one and start again with Southampton at their inflated valuation ( unlikely), or consider the unpalatable Manchester demand that Alvarez be included. At the very least West Ham would probably demand a huge Alvarez fee!
The net result for onlookers is apparent inactivity, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Whatever Tim Steidten is getting paid by West Ham, if he pulls off half the transfer targets for the club this summer, I suspect he will have earned it!
45 days left in transfer window whats the panic.
The whole idea is to have a full squad from the beginning if the season..so players can bed I. And hsve time to get used to the surroundings and team mates….not introduce them when we are 6/7;games in to the season….LIKE MOYES DID …no panic…but in what way can leaving the transfer business to the last min benefit us in any way…..moyes has gone ? Yet still making same unprofessional mistakes…its like 5 year olds do our buisness
45 days left in transfer window whats the panic.
Unthinkable to sell Alvarez to what will a direct competitor to our aspirations Alvarez was brought in to replace rice and getting rid of downes will make our holding midfield as a about as water tight as a sieve,I don’t like what I’m seeing which is getting our pants pulled down every deal we try to do , I would rather percievere with coufal than lose Alvarez
I don’t like what I’m seeing either. The English language is being brutalised. Don’t schools in the UK teach spelling and grammar anymore?
Please note that “percievere” should be spelt persevere.
Yep all very frustrating, I always get the feeling we get shafted on every deal either we pay to much in the first place or we pay player to much to persuade them to come. Also,Todibo clearly wants juventus over us we should walk away. Don’t want a half hearted player who will walk at first opportunity
All this talk about midfield and extra defenders why oh why have we not signed a player for the most important position A GOAL SCORING CENTRE FORWARD ???
On the face of it I’d agree with you Graham. However – look at the stats (We know Steidten is very fond of stats) we didn’t have a problem scoring last year, it was the awful 74 goals shipped that was the most conceded by a ‘survivor’ in the PL. Could understand it if rebuilding at the back is THE priority.
Unless it’s are going to give us bissaka and 50M for alveraz makes no sense. Getting to the point of just wanting the window closed, far too nuch money on click bait web sites. If you believe c&h our squad is 40 strong and we’ve spent 500m
Exactly mate .. nothing has changed……so frustrating…other clubs are signing players easily enough.
.with us always a drama …
BUT WHEN WE SELL NOW THATS A DIFFERENT MATTER…look how quickly flyn downs deal got done…fucking unbelievable..when money comes in they fly out the door….
Soooooooo bad