£13 million West Ham star injured, now Julen Lopetegui and Tim Steidten only have themselves to blame

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West Ham United head coach and director of football Tim Steidten both made one huge oversight in the summer transfer window.

Julen Lopetegui and Tim Steidten worked in tandem to secure some terrific signings for West Ham in the summer, and we definitely have a better squad now than when David Moyes left.

The West Ham head coach brought in nine new players, and got rid of much of the deadwood at the London Stadium.

And it has been claimed that the Spaniard is still in the market to bring in at least one more signing on a free transfer.

Despite all of the exceptional new signings Lopetegui and Steidten made, he still left himself short in one specific department.

Quite how the Spaniard and the German failed to strengthen one position in particular is truly mind-boggling.

Julen Lopetegui and Tim Steidten only have themselves to blame

The Hammers nicked a valuable point from our clash with Fulham at Craven Cottage yesterday afternoon.

It was a poor performance all round from the West Ham players, especially in the first-half.

We got a result out of the game in the end though, and that was hugely encouraging.

However, an injury to our left-back Emerson Palmieri really put a dampener on things, and Lopetegui admitted after the game that the Italy international suffered a ‘big knock’.

The 30-year-old, signed for £13 million from Chelsea in 2022, has firmly established himself as a key player for the Hammers over the past 12-18 months.

Now Lopetegui faces the very real prospect of having to play Aaron Cresswell at left-back, or equally as bad, using Vladimir Coufal at right-back and switching Aaron Wan-Bissaka out to the left.

Both scenarios are not appealing at all, but it really didn’t have to be that way.

West Ham transfer window oversight

I’m not saying that the Hammers had unlimited funds to spend in the summer, because we certainly didn’t.

However, was there really any need to spend £25 million on Luis Guilherme – a completely unproven teenager?

That deal may well end up looking like a shrewd move from West Ham, but right now, it seems like Julen Lopetegui and Tim Steidten made a big mistake.

How we could have done with a top-class left-back to really push Emerson Palmieri, and to provide able cover for the Italian when he’s out injured.

Some one like Ferdi Kadioglu, Juan Miranda or Jayden Oosterwolde would have been absolutely perfect for the job.

Hopefully West Ham address that particular issue in January or next summer at the very latest. The thought of Aaron Cresswell having to fill in for Emerson is keeping me awake at night!