West Ham’s dismal start has made it nearly impossible to believe they can escape relegation this season. New manager Nuno Espírito Santo is the first hire since Manuel Pellegrini to go winless in his first month after taking over the coaching reins. While there are another two months of football matches to play before the January transfer window, a lot will be riding on who they can bring in to stop the bleeding. The hope is that the Hammers can string together a couple of wins before their season becomes too dire. That being said, if majority owner David Sullivan wants to win fans over and stay in the Premier League, there are three players he can bring in who might just save the season.
1. Charlie Cresswell
There was heavy interest in Charlie Cresswell before the season started. Former head of recruitment Kyle Macaulay identified Cresswell as one of their top targets. The 23-year-old Toulouse defender wants to confirm his place on the English National Team for the World Cup, and there’s no better place to do that than a London team in the biggest league in the world. The player is all set to leave his French league side in favor of West Ham, but Toulouse wants at least £25 million. In the summer, that was a little too much for West Ham, but they are now in survival mode.
West Ham needs both leadership and defensive stability on the back line. After a year of Max Kilman and Jean-Clair Todibo, it’s clear they have not been a good fit for West Ham. At 6’3” with three solid seasons playing in the Championship and Ligue 1, Cresswell might just be the defenseman who gets it done. Cresswell can help both offensively and defensively on set pieces and corners, where West Ham have suffered since the losses of players like Kurt Zouma, Craig Dawson, and Angelo Ogbonna.
2. Ivan Toney
If Cresswell can help solve the defense, Ivan Toney can absolutely solve the striker position. The Hammers haven’t had a starting-caliber frontman since Gianluca Scamacca signed on in the summer of 2022. With all due respect to Michail Antonio, he was never truly a number 9, and the acquisitions of Danny Ings, Niclas Füllkrug, and Evan Ferguson never panned out. The arrival of Toney would bring an end to all the questions West Ham have up front. In Toney, they would have a proven Premier League striker in his prime. He’d be up to the task as well, as he’s expressed a desire to return to the league he loves. While he left amid gambling controversy, all that is behind him as his suspension ended in 2024.
Since joining Al-Ahli after the FA chased him out of Brentford, he has scored 39 goals in 56 appearances. You might say those stats are inflated because it’s not a strong league, but he has more goals than all-time greats like Sadio Mané, Karim Benzema, and Marcos Leonardo over the same number of games, trailing only Cristiano Ronaldo. Before joining the Saudi Pro League, he had 67 goals in 128 matches at Brentford. At the age of 29, Toney, like Cresswell, feels he can return to London and make enough of an impact to earn a call-up for the national team. While it’s hard to fathom Sullivan paying a price tag of between £40 and £50 million for Toney, it still makes sense. Toney would make an immediate impact and could quite possibly carry the entire squad.
3. Adama Traoré
All summer, while at Nottingham Forest, Nuno targeted Adama Traoré as a must-have for his roster. He believed the Fulham winger would have given his team much-needed depth and the speed required for his counter-attacking style of play. Nuno died on this hill, taking owner Evangelos Marinakis to task. Nuno wound up in heated conversations over the player and was eventually sacked when he called out Marinakis for failing to get him the players he wanted. While his best days might be behind him, late in games, Traoré can come on the pitch and go full beast mode, challenging potentially tired defenses. He also gives Nuno options if Summerville runs out of gas or if Bowen is being shifted around.
While not a natural goal scorer, Traoré presents matchup problems because of his speed and strength. With players like Antonio and Zouma no longer on the squad, West Ham have experienced physicality issues. They’ve been pushed around on the pitch and almost bullied at times. A player like Traoré changes that. He possesses plenty of toughness and Premier League experience. From previous inquiries, Traoré could be acquired for less than £12 million. Unlike the options above, he would come at a very affordable price and is someone Nuno trusts late in games.
A striker to solve West Ham’s scoring issues, a defender to stabilize their defensive woes, and depth at wing to provide speed, strength, and experience late in games when they need it most—getting all three would be essential to survival.