West Ham’s Disappointing Window a Dagger in Supporters Backs

Shouts for the next level have West Ham supporters cringing, and the board have now stabbed the fanbase in the back yet again after a lack of transfers. The ironic part is that David Moyes has the club moving in the right direction.

There wasn’t a complete goose egg when it came to incomings for West Ham. Some smart business was done early with the signing of promising Danish centre-back Frederik Alves. This signing is likely the in-house replacement for Fabian Balbuena whose contract expires at the end of this season.

As well, the club brought in Jesse Lingard on a six-month loan to provide cover at every midfield position as well as striker. The move is solid, as Lingard comes with a ton of useful experience, but his signing alone was not enough to cover the striker need as well as the midfield depth required.

With promises of the ‘next level’ already considered failed from the stadium move and demolition of the Boelyn Ground, play at the London Stadium has never sniffed European quality, even when “Astra Goo Goo” ousted us there.

With European football well within grasp for West Ham at the halfway point, why not invest?

With the form of the club as good as it currently is, there was a real opportunity for the Hammers to take the next step up and secure European football once again. The spine of this team, on the backs of Declan Rice, Angelo Ogbonna, and Michail Antonio is strong, but without reinforcement to all three areas of the pitch, that goal cannot be captured.

This window, the second consecutive that the club has cried poverty, while their opposition actively chasing them down in the table continue to strengthen their clubs. Arsenal brought in Martin Odegaard after Tomas Partey in the summer, Chelsea spent over £200m in the summer, Palace bought Jean-Philippe Mateta, Everton signed Hammers target Joshua King, and Aston Villa purchased another West Ham target in Morgan Sanson.

There was no intention of spending big in this window, which can clearly be seen after the opportunity has passed. David Moyes was revealed to have had £20-30m to buy a striker this window, but why did that information come out? Who leaked it?

After towing the company line in pre-match press conferences about buying the right players and being happy with his squad, Moyes would not have leaked his own budget with such scrutiny on his team and squad depth already. It only makes sense, as a smokescreen from the board, that someone in the Sullivan camp allowed this information to leak to draw attention away from them.

This is purely speculative, but good owners and boards back their managers and teams ALWAYS. They should especially do this when the club has exceeded pre-season belief and is pushing for European football.

The lack of motivation to help your own team, or own investment as it is clear that is all West Ham is to this ownership group, is staggering and offensive to supporters. The problem with Gold, Sullivan, and Brady has always been the mistrust they seeded deeply in the fanbase, this sadly will never be repaired as their incompetence seemingly compounds year after year.

We were promised next level and never received it. Moyes has done wonders for this team with a shoe-string budget and isn’t getting backed – and is having his well-earned contract extension held back for him for no reason. Next level is within reach with no help from the owners and they won’t even hop on the bandwagon.