This is written by Joe Doran
As we enter August, we are little over a month away from the Sky Sports circus that is the closing of the transfer window. As is often the case within the West Ham supporter community, certain elements have begun to express a level of dissatisfaction and even vitriolic rage towards the owners with regards to our transfer dealings.
Two months in, after the arrivals of Sofiane Feghouli, Gokhan Tore and Havard Nordtveit, plus the departure of club stalwart James Tomkins, the club finds itself roughly seven million pounds in the black. This business has, rather strangely, attracted a lot of negative attention from people within the community, for both ‘not spending enough’ and not ‘bringing in the calibre of players promised’. However, I would like to put it to these elements of the support that now is not the time for panic.
My first point of reference for this argument would be the wider transfer market, as it has been clear to see for a long time now, the Premier League clubs are operating in an inflated market, which seems to have no middle ground between deals that are ‘bargains’ and those which are ‘overpriced’. Manchester United are currently in the process of purchasing Paul Pogba for over £100million, Liverpool have paid approximately £30million for Sadio Mane, and Bournemouth have paid £15million for Jordon Ibe. These, I think we can all agree, are a step up in prices from a few years ago, when deals such as £35million for our own Andy Carroll were considered extortionate – a price that would be considered about right nowadays, given his status at the time. Meanwhile, deals like the one we have completed for Feghouli, go through on a free. This is not the same market in which we have seen success in the past, and it feels as though the kind of deals involving quality players for minimal outlay, such as that of Kouyate arriving for a now-paltry £8million, or Cresswell for a mere £4million, might become something of a rarity.
In this scenario, the club have two options; One is to pay ‘whatever it takes’ now, and risk spending all available funds on a ‘marquee’ signing now, when a better deal may arise later in the window. Or alternatively, hold our nerve, and continue to look for the best deals we can. There is always more movement later in the window, and it is for this reason that I gold the view that the cries of “pay whatever it takes!’ to get the calibre of player we expect are premature.
In addition to this lack of market value, is the relative inactivity of those teams around us, which seems to suggest that the problems West Ham are facing are not ours alone. Everton have signed only veteran keeper Stekelenburg, Southampton have signed Hojberg and Redmond, but lost Manè and Pelle, Stoke have signed a wildcard in Sobhi, and admittedly a solid player in Allen, whilst Liverpool pay large fees for players unproven at the very highest level. Looking further up the table, Manchester United and City continue to pay extortionate fees, Chelsea have found signings hard but managed to capture Kante for a large sum and Arsenal struggle yet again to land a striker. Spurs, arguably, have done well with Vincent Janssen, but he too remains unproven. Clearly then, many Premier League teams are struggling to land their men, possibly due to the large sums available to all of them meaning that the clubs in foreign markets feel able to ask for me. This is why I reject the idea that Gold and Sullivan’s media talk has been the main factor behind us having to pay more – Every Premier League team is having to, and none of them are finding any sort of success that we are not.
It is worth celebrating then, that despite this inflated market, that the deals we have secured all represent really fantastic business for the club. It is refreshing, in my view, to see first team quality players come in for free, and also to see more deals like those for Gokhan Tore, and potentially Jonathan Calleri, done on a loan-to-buy basis that represents low risk for the club – Anyone else glad we didn’t fork out £15m for Alex Song and £12m for Victor Moses based on reputation? These deals the club have made could well be worth their weight in gold, and yet the logic of some fans is that we should be concerned at the lack of money spent. Honestly, you can’t help but wonder if some segments of the fan base would be happy for us to land another Matt Jarvis or Savio Nsereko, as long as that ‘Spent’ column looks full.
Finally, the ‘marquee signing’. The now-infamous promise of the owners to bring us in a new frontman to finally convert all those chances created by Payet and Co. This has been the most frustrating saga in my time as a fan, both because a player hasn’t yet been signed, but also because of the level of moaning that has come from the fans as a result. Yes, we need a new striker. Yes, the sooner the better, but nobody can accuse the owners of not trying nor being ambitious. Though in this period of the season, the kudos comes from big names, what really matters is that we get someone who scores when the season kicks off. I think “Marquee” is an unfortunate term, and one the owners are trying valiantly to live up to, but to judge them solely on their ability to bag a big name signing would be extraordinarily narrow minded, when what matters is how many goals whoever they bring in gets by next May. It’s also worth reminding ourselves, again, that spending unnecessarily large sums now could price us out of other big moves later in the window.
I would hope, then, that my fellow West Ham fans would calm down for the time being. We must understand that the club finds itself in an exceptionally strong financial position, the owners have identified the problem areas, and will do all that they can to bring in what we need. Keep calm and carry on, as they say.
Excellently put!
Good, well balanced, rational thinking, almost serene! Well done.
This has been a crazy preseason from the fans “expectations” point of view and sometimes we all get caught up in the frenzy. So far I have no concerns at our transfer policy (except maybe the RB position) and like you I will reserve the right to judgment at the end of the coming season. In Slav we must trust COYI
The problem is that the owners go to the paps saying they’re gonna bag a big name. When and if they don’t the club, and by extension us fans, will look foolish (or at least get ribbed).
The business so far has been good but the Davids need to stop making promises in the media. God, they’re like Trump, “It’s gonna be great. Seriously, so great…”
I think we have done great business so far, even the kids we have bought have a lot of promise, the mistake Sullivan keeps making is announcing what he wants to do and how much he wants to pay for players. Under Allardyce this didn’t happen so often and so we didn’t have all this hysteria, hopefully he will learn from the last few Windows that this is a mistake but I doubt it.
Well said great article
Best article I’ve read in a while! Ive been wanting to write something similar but did feel to get shot down by all the moaners. This has been the most frustrating time for me as a fan, more so than getting relegated!
Well said – a balanced view at last instead of the panicking posts of the forums.
Refreshing and pertinent article that sets out the issues. Excellent, though I do wonder why Stephen Hendrie hasn’t been brought back.
Very well articulated. A large dollop of common sense.
Great statement, completely agree
Misses the point hugely
We are desperately short in the full back positions, even before Cresswell was injured we lacked suitable cover..
.and please dont get me started on the ridiculous notion that Antonio is a defender.
We lost a lot at the end of last season in terms of numbers and we have replaced some of them with players that are untried in our league…domething you just accused others of doing !
Our scattergun approach for the forwards has been laughable and how is this helping Slav with his preparations for the new season ?
Cresswell has been injured for some time now and still we have not secured a replacement
So forgive me for thinking all is rosy in our garden…it certainly is not.
Too much attention on the new stadium and selling kits they will hardly ever wear
Well I am one who refuses to give in to their money making machine
Buy some players!
All the Lemons’ should go support Arsenal. Can’t stand all this moaning. When the board took over we were in serious trouble, now we have one of the best players in the world, a 60,000 cap stadium, Super Slav and Noble leading our club out every weekend
Interesting piece and well put but I don’t entirely agree. I’m in the minority but I liked Moses and don’t think £12m was a bad price..he was quick and just needed a bit more work to be the finished article.There’s clearly an issue with Song that no one snapped him up. But with £10 for Tonks – very sorry to see him go, potentially around £15 for Sakho – cya and potentially £10/£15 for Valencia thats good money that should be used to for a ‘marque’ striker and we should take that risk.
The squad looks weaker overall to me and less balanced at the moment with unproven youngsters ‘fleshing’ out the lack of signings. We look short up front of goals again upfront and unbalanced at the back with lack of fullbacks and lack of centre half cover other than ‘youngsters with potential’. I don’t seeing us having the cracking start we did last season and at the moment it looks like mid table obscurity – building for the future?
Only comment is you forgot completing signing of Lanzini which, in todays crazy market, is an absolute steal
Well said. We have the money to spend but not the money to waste. Its important that we get a couple of fullbacks but other than that we are ready to go….COYI
Well explained and all true
Remember these are the same supporters or fans who are moaning ‘what has the new TIW 3rd strip got to do with West Ham?’ sometimes I dispear.
However you dress this up our owners have spent too much time this summer going down blind alleyways trying to buy players who were just not that interested, because we are not in the Euro Championship. We heard this time and again and yet David Sullivan was not listening.
He does business like a dog with a bone, which is a great trait to have but in life you need to know when to let go of the bone. Meanwhile other parts of the team, namely defence have been ignored and good players have passed us by. Even now we have been late in after Igueyye from Villa and look like missing out. He said we would be doing our deals at the beginning of the window, get in early, but it just has not really happened for us as we are still struggling to sign new strikers let alone defenders.
Last summer season we blew the Europa Cup chance because the team was unfit and not ready. We learnt nothing from that terrible experience because here we are on the brink of a repeat performance. The first leg performance was shocking! Our players should have been back training mid June to avoid this situation.
The players and club want to play in Europe, well that is the price for success unless we are straight through to the group stages, but of course we blew that at the end of last season.
So far its been a poor transfer window where we have a ragged, non existent defence of strangers playing out opposition and yet we still have more money in the transfer pot than we started with after promising to spend multi millions on a marque signing. Must admit I was expecting much better this summer from our management team. Lets hope Lady Brady can deliver with a magnificent stadium with no glitches on Thursday night. COYI
Excellent article
Great article well written and presented
Agree with nearly all of that. I had noted the lack of deals that have been completed by most of the clubs around us and think that the club has done little wrong. Where we have not helped ourselves too much is the media soundbites re centre forwards. That has gone down badly which is why we see a lot of moaning on social media.
My only slight concern for the team is the relative lack of interest in a right-back of experience. I do not think Antonio has it in him, no matter how much I like him to play there and that he will get exposed. That is my one downside to all of this.
100% agree
Great article matr
Generally agree with you, but fact is the season has kicked off and there are one or two things that are inexcusable. Solving the long term right back position for one, which if we should fail to progress on Thursday will be the major reason to add to the damage from last season. Secondly the big striker talk was Inadvisable, its not so much that they haven’t tried, but it’s raised expectations all round that looks bad when they fail to live up to. A more generalised comment about commitment to improve the squad and they have positions in mind and bids have been made, was more the way to go and would have avoided the inevitable derision and mocking from the opposition.
And interestingly it is now reported that the two are actually linked in as much as Bacca has said that he will only join if the club qualify for the UEFA proper. Maybe untrue but some potential imports will likely be taking that view and their a sense could affect this very important season generally as the lack of that elusive striker likely did last.
Couldn’t have put it better myself,well said !
No one has mentioned youth coming through, lets see where Oxford and Burke fit in with some new signings too. I can see Tomkins departure paving the way for Burke and Oxford to get game time and make a name for themselves. along with some new signings this could be a very good year.