Graham Potter will have a serious amount of work to do with his West Ham United squad in the summer.
The Hammers head coach is planning a big squad overhaul in the summer transfer window, according to reports.
West Ham have numerous players who aren’t at the level required to be successful in the Premier League, and I expect Graham Potter to take action this summer.
Recent reports have claimed that the Hammers need to sell in order to buy this summer.
Whilst I’m not completely convinced by the veracity of those claims, I do think there will be numerous high-profile exits from the London Stadium before the start of next season.
Potter and his sidekick Kyle Macaulay have a lot of mess to clean up, after the poor squad building from David Moyes, Julen Lopetegui and Tim Steidten before them.
The West Ham head coach and recruitment guru Macaulay will undoubtedly oversee a high turnover of players between this season and next.
That’s exactly what needs to happen. I fully expect to see a new route taken regarding our recruitment, so it will very much be a case of out with the old and in with the new.
And many, many players will not survive Potter’s squad revamp.
Only 12 West Ham stars will survive Graham Potter’s summer cull
Numerous Hammers first-team members will leave the club when the summer transfer window opens as far as I’m concerned.
It’s the nature of the job that Potter will have to make some very tough decisions at the end of the season.
I think only 12 of the current senior squad will remain at the club, with 16 either being sold, released or loaned out.
In the goalkeeping and defensive department, I reckon only five senior players will be kept on – Alphonse Areola, Max Kilman, Jean-Clair Todibo, Emerson Pamieri and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
The likes of Ollie Scarles and Kaelan Casey may well feature throughout the 2025/26 season as well.
I fully expect the likes of Vladimir Coufal, Lukasz Fabianski, Wes Foderingham, Aaron Cresswell, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Nayef Aguerd and Kurt Zouma all to be released or sold.
Meanwhile, in midfield, I can see only four players remaining at the London Stadium. Tomas Soucek, Carlos Soler, Lucas Paqueta and Edson Alvarez will most likely all flourish given time under Graham Potter.
James Ward-Prowse, Guido Rodriguez and Andy Irving are all likely to be sold in order to boost the club’s summer transfer coffers.
All change in attack at West Ham in the summer transfer window
Jarrod Bowen, Evan Ferguson and Crysencio Summerville are the only three attackers likely to remain at the London Stadium.
Hopefully we are able to sign a top-class striker, and Ferguson joins us on a permanent deal.
I truly believe that Mohammed Kudus will be sold, in order to raise funds for Potter’s summer spending spree.
The same can be said for Luis Guilherme and Niclas Fullkrug, whilst Danny Ings and Michail Antonio will probably be released.
Finally we come to Maxwel Cornet. I can’t think of too many signings the Hammers have made over the past two decades who’ve worked out worse than the Ivorian, if any at all.
He’s still under contract at the London Stadium until the summer of 2027, so I reckon his contract will be ripped up, and he’ll be released on a free transfer – similar to the compromise we reached with Jack Wilshere a few years back.
There will clearly be plenty of change at the London Stadium this summer.
In an ideal world, Potter would keep the 12 players mentioned above and Kudus as well, before bringing in six or seven new signings as a bare minimum.
However, I don’t feel like the Hammers head coach will be able to sign the players he wants without selling the Ghanaian.
There will undoubtedly be a big cull at West Ham under Graham Potter this summer, and 16 senior members of the squad are unlikely to survive it in my opinion.
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