West Ham United beat Bournemouth 1-0 in the Carabao Cup last night, but Julen Lopetegui will now have his eye on deadline day tomorrow.
Julen Lopetegui has already signed eight new players for West Ham this summer, but he wants more new faces through the door before the window closes tomorrow on transfer deadline day.
However, in order to do that, the West Ham head coach needs to get rid of some of the deadwood first, in order to free up some salary space at the London Stadium and generate some cash.
Last night’s performance against Bournemouth, in spite of the win, highlighted the need for two signings in particular as far as I’m concerned.
The Hammers desperately lacked any kind of creativity in the middle of the park without Lucas Paqueta, and that means that signing Carlos Soler either today or on deadline day is an absolute must.
In addition to that, we seemed like we lacked any kind of pace through the middle. Niclas Fullkrug is a top player, and I believe he’ll be successful for us.
However, I do think Lopetegui needs to bring in a young pacy striker to provide us with a completely different option, and that man should be Jhon Duran.
If the Spaniard is to have any chance of bringing those players in, he needs to move on three fringe players at the very least.
West Ham could be very busy on deadline day
The summer transfer window closes at 11pm on Friday, so the Hammers haven’t got long to get the final bits of business done.
Hopefully we will see one or two more new arrivals before the window slams shut, and I desperately want to see some underperforming, overpaid players sold.
I think the squad selected by Lopetegui for the Carabao Cup clash with Bournemouth was a clear message that he’s trying to move three players in particular on from the club.
And the sooner they leave the better.
Danny Ings, Nayef Aguerd and Maxwel Cornet were all omitted from the squad for last night’s clash with Bournemouth.
And I believe that’s a clear and obvious sign that Lopetegui and Tim Steidten are trying to get rid of them before tomorrow’s 11pm deadline.
Hopefully they are successful.
Ings is being heavily linked with a move to Leeds, whilst Moroccan centre-back Aguerd has interest from the Bundesliga.
Meanwhile, Cornet has draw attention from the likes of Southampton.
All three of them simply aren’t good enough to play for West Ham in the Premier League, and David Moyes clearly wasted £62 million bringing them to the London Stadium.
We’ll be lucky to get more than £20 million for all three of them. However, moving them on would get around £275k-a-week off the wage-bill.
New era at West Ham
If the Hammers manage to get rid of Ings, Aguerd and Cornet before tomorrow’s 11pm deadline, and bring in Soler and maybe Duran as well, we will be top six contenders.
A lot of work clearly still needs to be done, but we’re on the verge of achieving something very special at the London Stadium.
Despite the below average performance from the team as a whole last night, the boys still got the win in the end.
It will take plenty of time and patience before Lopetegui’s ideas and footballing philosophy manifests into proper performances on the pitch.
And when it clicks, it will be very special indeed, I have no doubts about that.
In order to help us on the way though, Julen Lopetegui must sign Soler for West Ham at the very least before the transfer window closes on deadline day tomorrow.
And moving on Ings, Aguerd and Cornet will help him do just that.
Receive a digest of our best West Ham content each week direct to your mailbox
