There were seven deadline day deals completed by our rivals yesterday that West Ham United should have been all over.
Hammers boss David Moyes idly watched on as clubs inside the bottom half of the Premier League strengthened left right and centre.
I firmly believe that we could be in really trouble this season, unless the players start performing…and fast.
The players are undoubtedly to blame but the buck stops with Moyes. He is the one who has overseen this mess from the very first day of the season up until now.
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Moyes is under real pressure in his role as manager at the London Stadium. West Ham’s awful start to the season means that he needs positive results quickly, if he is to stay in the job.
The Scot could have helped his cause by bringing in one or two players on deadline day. He chose not to, and that was a huge mistake in my opinion.
But what made that decision even worse is the fact that every other club around us were signing players yesterday. And many of the players they brought in could have easily done a job for West Ham…
7 deadline day deals West Ham should have been all over
Sasa Lukic
The 26-year-old joined Fulham yesterday from Torino for around £8 million. Standing at 6ft 1in tall, the Serbia international possesses a very strong and imposing physique. The midfielder would have been a huge upgrade on Tomas Soucek in my opinion.
Sambi Lokonga
Crystal Palace signed the young central midfielder from Arsenal on loan yesterday, but why weren’t we in the mix? The 23-year-old is a huge talent and would have brought some much-needed athleticism and vertically to our passing in the middle of the park.
Naouirou Ahamada
The 20-year-old joined Crystal Palace from Stuttgart for an undisclosed fee. Ahamada is a real talent, and has a great future in the game. Signing the Frenchman would have been evidence of a shift toward the Red Bull model that Moyes has been promising. Alas, it didn’t happen.
Hamed Junior Traore
Bournemouth picked up the 22-year-old attacking midfielder on loan from Sassuolo. The Ivory Coast international is a real talent, has pace in abundance, energy to burn and and dynamism by the boatload. I really don’t understand why West Ham boss Moyes wasn’t in for Traore on deadline day.
Harry Souttar
The powerful centre-back joined Leicester City from Stoke City yesterday for just £15 million. This is probably the one that I’m most angry about out of all seven deals. The 24-year-old would have been absolutely perfect for us and with Craig Dawson having left and Kurt Zouma struggling with injuries, the Hammers failing to sign Souttar, or even being in the race for that matter, is absolutely baffling.
Kamaldeen Sulemana
The 20-year-old Ghanian winger joined Southampton from Rennes for around £22 million yesterday. What a talent Sulemana is, and whilst he might not make an immediate impact, he definitely will be a star of the future in my eyes.
Paul Onuachu
The giant striker has been a target for West Ham for quite some time now. He joined Southampton yesterday for £18 million though, and I genuinely feel like he could be the difference between going down and staying up for the Saints. Hopefully it’s not at our expense…
The really depressing thing here is that all of those players have gone to clubs who are struggling in and around us in the Premier League table.
West Ham’s next three games will be pivotal to our hopes of staying up. We face Newcastle away, Chelsea at home and Tottenham away. Zero points from those games and things will be looking really bleak.
Had Moyes brought in one or two signings on deadline day I would have been far more confident about West Ham heading into that trilogy of Premier League games.
Everyone else around us strengthened, and that will undoubtedly have given a huge boost to all of them. Let’s just hope that the Hammers turn things around and Moyes and his players start producing the goods.
However, the fact that we can’t get away from is that the West Ham squad is really stretched in certain areas. And any injuries to key players now would be an absolute disaster.
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