West Ham have been looking at the free agent market before the Premier League cut off but Julen Lopetegui says it won’t be happening.
On Saturday West Ham and the other 19 Premier League clubs must submit their final squad lists.
After nine new arrivals and 12 departures, West Ham’s list will look a lot different to last season.
The list includes £155m worth of new signings after the Hammers board threw their backing behind Julen Lopetegui and technical director Tim Steidten.
Lopetegui has made it clear he wants two senior players for every position.
After the defeat to Man City before the international break, the Spaniard confirmed West Ham were looking at potentially making a 10th signing from the free agent market.
Lopetegui explains why West Ham won’t be signing free agents
Once the squad list is sent to the Premier League, it is locked in and no changes can be made until the January window.
The Hammers have been linked with a host of defenders including Mario Hermoso, Mats Hummels, John Egan and Joel Matip.
Out of contract forward Memphis Depay has been linked – once again – with a move to the London Stadium too.
Hermoso and Hummels joined Roma, Egan has signed for Burnley after playing in a trial game for West Ham over the international break.
There has been renewed speculation Matip might yet be offered a short-term West Ham deal.
And Depay has been ruled out by a top Hammers insider after Niclas Fullkrug’s injury was not as bad as first feared.
There will be no further names added to West Ham’s sheet either.
Great news for West Ham and two Academy stars in particular
Lopetegui has explained why West Ham won’t be signing any free agents and it’s great news.
“The market is closed and we did the best that we can and we tried to improve the squad in the different positions,” Lopetegui said in his pre-Fulham press conference.
“It’s true that on the deadline (day) we lost James (Ward-Prowse) but we signed Carlos (Soler).
“And it’s true that we lost (Nayef) Aguerd and we didn’t sign one other centre-back.
“That’s why we have to look towards the Academy players too for this position and now we don’t talk about the market and be focused on the everyday work and the players that are this moment in our squad.”
This is fantastic news for West Ham and especially the Academy.
The right thing to do for the real West Ham way
Players like Kaelan Casey and another highly-rated emerging central defensive talent Ezra Mayers will be delighted by Lopetegui’s comments.
Signing a player whose career is on the decline like Egan or Matip would have sent completely the wrong message to the youngsters.
Especially as West Ham are the self-styled Academy of Football.
And those young players could well be in line for some serious game time over the course of the season.
Lopetegui likes to play with three centre-backs at times – so that will put one of those young stars literally one step away from the first team.
Casey is seen as the one directly in line to be fourth-choice at West Ham.
It could be that Edson Alvarez is in reality the next in line to fill in at the back given his experience playing there for Ajax and Mexico on occasion.
But West Ham seriously rate Mayers and have been raving about him of late.
So he is one to keep an eye on too.
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