When you watch other clubs do transfer business it brings things sharply into focus for West Ham United.
Euro giants want to offload West Ham target who has just snubbed Newcastle, Moyes must pounce
Of course it is not always the case, but rival clubs seem to identify a player and – if they really want said player – a deal gets done.
Take West Ham’s midweek opponents Aston Villa for example. Dean Smith wanted Hammers target Morgan Sanson from Marseille.
A realistic bid goes in. There may be some minor negotiations. And within 48 hours deal done, player signed.
With West Ham deals seem to take weeks, even months to get anywhere close.
Unfathomable for a Premier League team to have one senior striker
How many times have we seen other clubs then swoop in and snatch a player away? Or a selling club pull the plug in despair at having to deal with West Ham over a transfer.
From David Moyes’s comments after the chastening 3-1 defeat to Liverpool’s reserves on Sunday, it appears West Ham will not be signing a striker before the transfer deadline this evening (Evening Standard).
It is frankly unfathomable for a Premier League team to have just one senior striker in their squad. Most have four and even the relegation threatened sides have at least three.
Football suicide. Delusional. Stupid. Call it what you want, it is highly, highly unusual.
Throw in the fact that West Ham’s only striker, Michail Antonio, is an injury-prone converted winger and the Hammers really are putting everything they have worked so hard for at risk.
In this wide open season the Hammers have given themselves a genuine opportunity to do something special.
Moyes identified a number of strikers to replace Sebastien Haller. None have arrived.
The Scot has said he will not just sign anyone for the sake of it.
Owners have failed Moyes and long-suffering fans once again with a lack of any genuine ambition
And the fact he even has to make such a statement sums up everything that is rotten behind the scenes at West Ham.
What Moyes is inferring is that co-owner David Sullivan – who just cannot help but play real life Football Manager – WOULD do exactly that – just sign anyone.
Indeed it suggests Sullivan has been offering to bring in ‘anyone for the sake of it’ as he and David Gold have done so many times in the last 11 years at West Ham.
But surely any billionaire with the front to call themselves a lifelong West Ham fan – who is then lucky enough to own their boyhood club – would pull out all the stops to reward a manager with a player HE not only wants but desperately needs after guiding the club into the top four halfway through their best season for nearly 40 years?
Especially when that one player could be the difference between you qualifying for Europe or even winning the FA Cup?
Moyes wanted Sevilla striker Youssef En-Nesyri. And West Ham did their usual. Bid way under his true value, instantly getting the selling club’s back up.
While the Moroccon was scoring back-to-back hat-tricks in La Liga, West Ham were adding peanuts to their bid.
Sevilla wanted around £40/45million.
West Ham’s biggest bid – according to reports – amounted to around £30m with add-ons.
It was never going to happen.
Lingard up front? Pull the other one. Striker signing could have fired West Ham to memorable season. Now it’s all hanging by a thread (Antonio’s hamstring)
And now West Ham fans are supposed to swallow that Jesse Lingard can play as a false nine? Ask Manchester United fans if that is the case.
The Red Devils tried that with the midfielder against none other than West Ham when he came on as a sub back in September 2019.
It didn’t work and West Ham won 2-0.
Just because Moyes converted Marko Arnautovic and Antonio from wingers to forwards doesn’t mean he can take any midfielder and make them a striker.
By not going out and getting a deal done – no matter what it took – to sign a striker MOYES wanted, West Ham’s owners have left him down. They have let the team down. And once again they have let the fans down.
Antonio has been brilliant.
But in the last two games he has proved he is far from the deadly, clinical forward he has started to be painted out to be.
His finishing has always been erratic and the goals come in waves.
So do his injuries.
Sullivan and Gold had a brilliant opportunity to build bridges with supporters with their actions in this transfer window.
Instead they’ve failed them and Moyes when it mattered most.
They may yet get away with it. Antonio might stay fit and get back on the goal trail.
But that will be more by luck than judgement on West Ham’s part.
Every time West Ham’s loyal, long-suffering, success-starved fans dare to dream they get a slap around the face from reality. All too often it feels like the slap is being delivered by their unpopular owners.
If the Hammers miss out on Europe this season Moyes and his players can say ‘we gave it our all’.
Can Sullivan and Gold look in the mirror and say the same?
Warnock says West Ham man ‘hasn’t got a clue what he’s doing’
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