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Is West Ham’s transfer window in danger of fizzling out already?

By Scott Johnson

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 04: Manuel Pellegrini, Manager of West Ham United gives his team instructions during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Southampton FC at London Stadium on May 04, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 04: Manuel Pellegrini, Manager of West Ham United gives his team instructions during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Southampton FC at London Stadium on May 04, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images) /
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West Ham have been in the transfer news this week, but not for all together glamorous reasons. Are we in danger of having another transfer window like 2016?

Ah the wonderful times of 2016. West Ham were moving to a new stadium, Bilic was the best manager in the world and everyone wanted to join us. Until we actually bid for them that was. And we ended up with such delightful talents as Gokhan Tore, Jonathon Calleri and Simone Zaza. Not something we want to repeat.

That same year we spent all summer talking about a 20 goal a season striker, and we ended up scaring everyone off with incessant bids that were about 10m below the players’ actual value. Stories in the papers had us close to signing 5 or 6 strikers, and we ended up with Ayew, who is really a winger, being the big name. Also not what we’re after as a summer.

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Now I don’t want people to think that I thought Ayew was a bad player. He wasn’t. But he wasn’t what we needed, or what we were promised. And Zaza was an absolute disappointment from beginning to end. What we had was a huge case of promising a brand new looking front line and coming away with a wonderful paint job that was only going to last about 4 games before everyone realised it was kept together with toothpicks and hope.

With both the Maxi Gomez and Andre Gomes deal seemingly grinding to a halt before anything of interest happened, we’re in real danger of promising some progress over the summer and ending up standing where we are. After the progress that was made last summer, that would be a huge shame and against everything that was promised. What’s the point of getting a premium manager if you’re only going to have an average squad to work with?

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The biggest issue we have is simply that people know what we’re after, and in the current market people won’t be selling to the Premier League on the cheap. So we need to acknowledge that if we want next level players, we’re going to need to pay the appropriate fee. And maybe, if we can help it, not over promise and under deliver once again.