After West Ham publicly set Championship promotion as the goal for the season, fans are understandably concerned over the club’s lack of transfer activity this summer.
Especially after the big money departures of key players Mateus Fernandes and Crysencio Summerville.
West Ham’s new majority owner Daniel Kretinsky and interim CEO Karim Virani have barely put a foot wrong since succeeding David Sullivan and Karren Brady.
But there is no hiding the fact many Hammers supporters are growing increasingly anxious and frustrated at the lack of new arrivals thus far.
West Ham transfer worries are unfounded
When new head of recruitment Nils Koppen was brought in from Copenhagen, the Belgian declared that he had already started planning targets with head coach Nuno Espirito Santo.
As is always the case in transfer windows, West Ham have been linked with all and sundry.
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But activating the £1m option to make Keiber Lamadrid’s loan move permanent is the only signing the Hammers have made to date.
There has been a groundswell of positivity around the club since the departure of Sullivan and Brady.
To that end, Sullivan opened up on selling his West Ham stake in a major Hammers News exclusive this week.
Many Hammers fans have been critical of the club’s slow-moving window, feeling signings are needed and fast if West Ham are to have any chance of automatic promotion from the Championship.
But the transfer worries are unfounded because West Ham’s starting XI blows their Championship rivals away.
Yes Fernandes and Summerville were key players and their exits undoubtedly weaken West Ham.
West Ham’s starting XI blows rivals away even without additions
However, what many supporters are forgetting is that West Ham are now playing in the second tier and they go into the campaign with the core of their squad intact.
West Ham, with this squad – albeit minus two star players – were officially the sixth best team in the Premier League in the second half of last season as Nuno’s side finally started stringing performances and results together.
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It proved too little too late – by a solitary victory – but West Ham aren’t dropping into the Championship as Premier League whipping boys, far from it.
The Hammers drop down as one of the form teams of the top flight.
Yes they’ve lost a couple of stars, but supporters need to take a deep breath, trust Nuno, Koppen and the new regime to bring in the right players and characters, of the right age and profile for the LONG-TERM benefit of West Ham United.
There has been far too much short-termism at West Ham over the last two decades and that must stop if the club ever wants to make true, sustainable progress as the likes of Brighton, Brentford and others have done.
Fears West Ham won’t be able to make a good start without signings are also completely unfounded.
Continuity counts for a lot and with the core of the squad remaining, including talisman Jarrod Bowen, the opposite should be true.
Especially as West Ham’s starting XI is still far and away the best in the Championship by a distance, even without Summerville and Fernandes.
Nuno says new West Ham signings will be arriving ‘soon’ in response to worried supporters.
But even without them, this side is more than capable of walking most games in the second tier.
Mads Hermansen, Kyle Walker-Peters or – until he is sold – Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Max Kilman, El Hadji Malick Diouf or Ollie Scarles, Tomas Soucek (when fit again), Soungoutou Magassa, James Ward-Prowse or Freddie Potts, Mohamadou Kante, Bowen and Taty Castellanos.
The Hammers will have the likes of Pablo and some of the names above in reserve with impressive youngsters waiting in the wings too.
Yes the squad needs additions but the first team is better than any Championship rival by a distance.
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