Julen Lopetegui has made a costly and very obvious £25 million transfer error at West Ham

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Julen Lopetegui undoubtedly enjoyed a very successful summer transfer window at West Ham United.

The West Ham head coach brought in nine new players, and got rid of much of the deadwood at the London Stadium.

Julen Lopetegui is clearly a very ambitious man indeed, and has grand plans to take West Ham to another level entirely.

I love his attitude, and the way that Julen Lopetegui was urging his West Ham players to press Manchester City high up the pitch yesterday was a pleasure to watch.

There are many, many positives that have come from Lopetegui’s first two months in charge at the London Stadium.

As a club, we have clearly made huge progress regarding how we actually operate off the pitch, and the signs have been encouraging on the pitch as well.

However, nobody’s perfect, and the 58-year-old made one very big error in particular as far as I’m concerned.

Julen Lopetegui made costly £25m West Ham transfer error

Despite all of the stunning signings that the former Wolves and Sevilla boss made in the summer, not every one of his decisions have been spot on.

It’s impossible for any manager to be error-free during a transfer window, unless you’re Pep Guardiola it seems!

And Lopetegui is someone who definitely isn’t immune from transfer mistakes, despite his many, many successes.

The Spaniard’s decision to sign Niclas Fullkrug to West Ham for around £25 million may well end up being a real shocker.

Niclas Fullkrug is a solid striker, and I’m in no way suggesting that he will fail at the London Stadium.

However, had the Hammers pushed the boat out a little bit more, we could have signed Aston Villa striker Jhon Duran.

The 20-year-old just looks electric for Villa right now with two Premier League goals to his name already, and he would have suited us perfectly with his pace and power.

Jhon Duran was literally begging West Ham to sign him in the summer transfer window, and he even did the famous ‘crossed Hammers’ sign during a live-stream back in July.

Whilst the Colombian possesses incredible movement, explosive pace and real dynamism, the same can’t be said for Fullkrug unfortunately.

The German is still bedding into life at the London Stadium, so we must be patient with him. However, the early signs are that his lack of pace could be a really big problem in the Premier League.

I believe that Julen Lopetegui should have pushed the boat out to bring Jhon Duran to West Ham in the summer transfer window rather than Niclas Fullkrug.

I’m not giving up on the 31-year-old – he may well still end up being a hugely important player for us. However, I just feel like Duran would have made us unplayable.