West Ham gets richer, but where is the January investment?

We’re just about halfway through the January transfer window and so far it’s been feathers from the board about new players. With the richest clubs be released and West Ham being mentioned, why is there no investment?

The short answer is that the board is cheap. History point’s to this and the January transfer window only compounds the issue, as we are fed the line ‘it’s hard to get players in at a reasonable price in January’ year after year.

While there may be elements of truth in this statement, the club seems to avoid doing deals in January, unless it comes to selling their own players. TheWestHamWayCoUk did the leg work on twitter and examined the spend and gain for the Hammers in the January transfer window going back to 2012/13. The findings are as follows:

"“Had a we look back at West Ham’s January window net spending in recent years – 18/19 £0 – 17/18 £25m profit – 16/17 £7.5m profit – 15/16 £1m profit – 14/15 £2m – 13/14 – £600k – 12/13 – £270k – so in truth this club actually makes money in January and doesn’t spend.”More from Green Street Hammers - West HamBrighton vs West Ham predictions: Can James Ward-Prowse help end the curse?West Ham and two Premier League rivals made huge transfer standLucas Paqueta bet allegations discussed in West Ham and Man City transfer talksBournemouth vs West Ham predictions: Premier League opener amid transfer chaosWest Ham near Denis Zakaria transfer after final James Ward-Prowse bid"

An interesting look into January for the club. Not to mention, it’s a club that ranked 18th in the Deloitte ranking of top richest football clubs in the world, passing both Everton and Newcastle in this year’s rankings. They improved from 20th spot, valued at €197.9m last year to 18th this year with an increased valuation of €216.4.

So, where’s the money? To answer this question we may have to ask another important one first: where are the ITKs? The ever credible ExWHUEmployee admitted that agent talk lured West Ham and the ITK network surrounding the club into the negotiation process for Gedson Fernandes, whooping up a late flurry of offers that boxed out the Hammers from the Portuguese wunderkind.

This transfer update killed the likes of newcomer ITK F0rbo, who hasn’t tweeted since stating Fernandes was on a plane to sign with the Hammers. The pending signing of Fernandes to Spurs makes sense, too. Sure he is friends with the youth players at West Ham, but his mom lives in London and Jose Mourinho is a legendary Portuguese manager. Plus the team shows ambition.

The team was left in the dark on Fernandes, and are now partaking in “the longest medical in history” as the stubborn board looks to bring back an injured Darren Randolph amidst a keeper injury crisis to save a few quid. Always seemingly pinching their pennies, the leadership group at West Ham is rapidly losing the supporters they did have after spending big two summers ago.

So, if January is for making money, the real loser here is David Moyes. It looks like minimal additions to the team are on the horizon for the second time in his tenure as manager. It’s hard to succeed when you aren’t supported and for Moyes, it will be a lesson in alchemy to turn the squad he has at his disposal into a reputably and hard-to-beat team. A desperate cry to open their wallets is ringing out from many West ham supporters, will they listen? History suggests no.