West Ham United are close to reaching the big £1 billion mark with a transfer milestone record on the cards in the summer.
West Ham and David Moyes chose to stick rather than twist in the January transfer window.
The only arrival for the first team at the London Stadium was £15m striker Danny Ings. That was in stark contrast to West Ham’s relegation rivals who spent an unprecedented £350m on 30 new players between them.
Many have accused Moyes and West Ham of fiddling while Rome burns during the window.
On the other hand there may be something to be said come what May for Moyes keeping his head while all those around him are losing theirs. Time will tell.
West Ham shelled out £170m on eight new signings in the summer with the capture of Ings taking Moyes’ spending to nearly £200m in the last two windows.
It means West Ham are close to reaching the big £1 billion mark with that particular transfer milestone record on the cards in the summer.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire – who has spoken exclusively to Hammers News on what he has heard about the West Ham takeover situation – has produced a fascinating chart regarding transfer spending.
West Ham close to reaching big £1 billion mark with transfer milestone record on the cards in the summer
And it shows that the Ings deal takes West Ham up to £981m spent on transfers since the dawn of the Premier League era in 1992.
That means the Hammers will almost certainly reach the £1bn milestone record come the summer with new signings needed in a host of key areas and with several departures from Moyes’ ageing squad also on the cards.
Chelsea – unsurprisingly given their mammoth outlays during the Roman Abramovich tenure and now under Todd Boehly’s American consortium – lead the way with a £3bn transfer spend.
West Ham’s £981m spend makes them the ninth biggest spending club on the 10-club list, ahead of Aston Villa (£906m).
Bitter rivals Spurs are sixth with a £1.362bn outlay. Man City, Man United, Liverpool and Arsenal make up the top five with an £8.2bn spend between them.
Everton (£1.159bn) and Newcastle (£1.036bn) are also above West Ham in the transfer spend table since the inauguration of the Premier League in 1992.
West Ham’s record signing in that time is said to be summer arrival Lucas Paqueta at £51m. Sebastien Haller (£45m) is second.
“The purchases in the January transfer window mean that Chelsea are the first team in Premier League history to spend £3 billion on players since the EPL started in 1992/93,” Maguire said on Twitter alongside the chart, which you can see below.
There has been much talk about Financial Fair Play following an unprecedented January transfer window for Premier League clubs, particularly in light of Chelsea’s spending spree.
West Ham were recently named on a UEFA FFP watchlist. And Maguire also explained to Hammers News what that means for West Ham.
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