The West Ham United board have added to a renewed sense of positivity around the club with a major update designed to reassure fans ahead of the summer transfer window.
- Hammers News exclusive
With speculation swirling and questions mounting amid PSR concerns, the West Ham owners have calmed nerves by telling supporters there’s a clear plan in place.
The penny seemed to drop for the Hammers at Man United.
While the opposition lacked credibility given how disinterested they looked with the Europa League final looming large on the horizon, West Ham still put in arguably their best performance yet under Graham Potter.
West Ham were solid and concentrated for the entire match and carried a threat going forward.
Has penny dropped for West Ham’s Potter era?
The 30-pass move for West Ham’s opening goal at Old Trafford has whetted the appetite for what might be to come when Potter gets his own team in place.
For that, all eyes now start to turn to the summer transfer window.
West Ham have made it clear for some time that players need to be offloaded to raise money for signings due to PSR.
The wage bill also needs to be trimmed for the same reason.
At the same time Potter and head of recruitment Kyle Macaulay want to drastically lower the average age of the Premier League’s oldest squad, working alongside de facto director of football David Sullivan.
The Irons did both by announcing the ruthless decision to release veteran quartet Aaron Cresswell, Vladimir Coufal, Lukasz Fabianski and Danny Ings last week.
That trims the wage bill to the tune of £14.5m per year and age of the squad by 139 years.
The move has sparked concerns West Ham are letting too many senior, leadership figures go in successive summers having said goodbye to Mark Noble, Declan Rice, Angelo Ogbonna, Kurt Zouma and now players with 25 years and over 700 appearances of combined service.
Yesterday a top Hammers insider also dropped a worrying £160m bombshell – revealing losses were piling up in east London.
West Ham supporters following the early whirring of the transfer rumour mill have noted the clear shift in the profile of player being targeted.
West Ham board issue major update over summer transfer plans
Young, emerging talents are very much on the club’s radar ahead of the window opening in just over two weeks.
The Hammers cannot afford to make any more transfer mistakes given the struggles of this season and with the Premier League expected to be a lot more competitive next season.
Now the West Ham board have issued a major update to reassure fans over summer transfer plans.
With loan duo Carlos Soler and Evan Ferguson not being retained, that is six current players already heading out of the London Stadium exit this summer.
A decision is looming on Michail Antonio too.
And 35-year-old striker Antonio has suggested for the first time he might be leaving West Ham.
Hammers reassure fans plan in place for ‘exciting challenge’
With sales also needed to raise funds, the likes of Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Paqueta – if he beats spot-fixing charges – are expected to be sold along with several others.
West Ham confirmed they want to sign at least three to five players, if not more, depending on sales this summer.
Now the club has moved to reassure fans they are very much working to a plan with targets lined up and priority positions identified.
“We think centre-forward and midfield are key for us this summer,” the top spokesman for West Ham’s owners exclusively told Hammers News.
“But we can’t buy until we sell under the financial rules.
“Yes we have specific targets lined up but they are very much secret!
“It is an exciting challenge (to rebuild the squad). It is not easy as we have to sell before we buy but we have a plan.”
This summer the window opens for international deals over a month earlier than usual due to the FIFA Club World Cup.
It means West Ham can start selling and making signings from June 1st.
The window is officially open for 10 days and closes for six before re-opening on June 16th until September.
But the only thing that won’t be possible during the six-day period when the window is closed is the official announcement of transfer deals.
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