Who is responsible for the summer transfer disaster?

We all accept last Summer’s transfer window was a disaster.

Recent financial accounts confirmed the club spent a total of £45.7m last summer but who is to blame for it ALL going so wrong?

Contrary to popular belief the de facto director of football David Sullivan, Head of Recruitment Tony Henry and manager Slaven Bilic each need to sign off every signing and therefore all have a right to veto.

We saw his in action in January with Scott Hogan, the Brentford player was scouted by  Henry, with Sullivan reportedly happy to back it but Bilic vetoed it so no bid was made.

We understand, each of the trio compile  their own list and go through each player one by one, crossing out some and underlining others. In the case of Sullivan they mainly come from agents and clubs who have contacted him to tell him that their player is available. Tony Henry runs the West Ham scouting network and Bilic does his own research to highlight players who he admires or wants within the squad.

Bearing the above process in mind below is our understanding of which list the summer transfers originally initiated from.

Havard Nordtveit (Borussia Moenchengladbach) Free (Slaven Bilic)

Sofiane Feghouli (Valencia) Free transfer (Slaven Bilic)

Gokhan Tore (Besiktas) Loan (Slaven Bilic)

Andre Ayew (Swansea City) £20.5m (Slaven Bilic)

Simone Zaza (Juventus) Loan (Slaven Bilic)

Domingos Quina   (Tony Henry)

Toni Martinez (Valencia) (Tony Henry)

Ashley Fletcher (Manchester United) Undisclosed (Tony Henry)

Arthur Masuaku (Olympiacos) Undisclosed (Tony Henry)

Edimilson Fernandes (FC Sion) Undisclosed (Tony Henry)

Jonathan Calleri (Deportivo Maldonado) Loan (David Sullivan)

Alvaro Arbeloa (Free) (David Sullivan)

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who proposed them as all three signed off on them so all three could be said to be equally guilty for the disastrous summer.