Most West Ham fans would have woken up happy this morning.
In spite of the ill-feeling towards the board, the Hammers do now seem to have a group of players who should be more than capable of avoiding relegation.
West Ham brought in Darren Randolph from Middlesbrough, Tomas Soucek on loan from Slavia Prague (with an option to buy in the summer), and Jarrod Bowen from Hull City on transfer deadline day for around £22 million (Sky Sports).
On the face of it, that seems like decent business. But the fact that everything was left until the very last minute where Bowen was concerned highlights just how inept the Hammers’ transfer dealings have been in recent history.
It is no coincidence that clubs like Liverpool and Manchester City did not do any business on deadline day. They are well run institutions, and they get their business done early.
The Reds signed Takumi Minamino on January 1st, whilst Pep Guardiola is notorious for his insistence on getting his business done in the summer before the season begins.
City have not made a signing in January since Aymeric Laporte arrived from Athletic Bilbao two years ago (Transfermarkt).
West Ham, meanwhile, seem to cruise along in the hope of picking up a few wins and thus not needing to strengthen.
Unfortunately for them, they didn’t get those wins this time, and were forced to splash the cash on Bowen.
We are not saying the Hammers didn’t need the 23-year-old. We’re just simply suggesting that they should have signed the attacker earlier on this month. And perhaps then, they wouldn’t be in the situation that they are currently in.
Gary Neville alluded to this with a tweet that he posted way back in 2012:
Neville hit the nail on the head with this tweet. And it sums West Ham up perfectly as a football club. Hopefully we will avoid the drop this season, but if we don’t, there will only be two people to blame – David Sullivan and David Gold.
Their moves in the transfer market are always reactionary. And that means that West Ham recruit with no long-term plan for the future.
Let’s just hope that we get away with it this year. Hopefully Bowen will hit the ground running and be a hit at the London Stadium.
But in order to make progress in the future, the Hammers must change their entire approach to transfer windows from here on out.
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