West Ham’s board have provided a major transfer update as speculation mounts over the possibility of four players leaving and two new signings arriving.
- Hammers News exclusive
When Monday rolls around, West Ham will have just two weeks left to make signings.
Given the extensive rebuild touted by Graham Potter and expected by the Hammers fans, things have not gone to plan.
Going into this most crucial of summer transfer windows, West Ham were handed a big boost.
FIFA announced it would be opened up and extended to essentially three months.
That gave Potter, head of recruitment Kyle Macaulay and co-owner-cum-director of football David Sullivan extra time to get West Ham’s ducks in a row.
Potter did want to thin his squad down, feeling it was far too bloated with senior players for a club not in European competition.
West Ham’s summer window fails to excite
The softly spoken Hammers head coach has shown a ruthless streak few knew he had in dispensing of some experienced stalwarts like Aaron Cresswell, Lukasz Fabianski, Vladimir Coufal and Michail Antonio.
However, the manager has been accused of being railroaded by the owners in the signings of Callum Wilson and Kyle Walker-Peters.
Interviews with those players and from Potter himself suggest he was very much involved in those additions. But many fans don’t believe a word of it.
With just over two weeks to go West Ham have made four additions in exciting left wing-back El Hadji Malick Diouf and goalkeeper Mads Hermansen along with full-back cover Walker-Peters, 28, and 33-year-old Wilson.
The window has done very little to excite Hammers fans.
Especially as there is no getting away from the fact the club has sold one of its most talented and explosive stars in Mohammed Kudus – to bitter rivals Tottenham no less – and has failed to replace him.
Potter desperately needs to overhaul a painfully slow and unathletic midfield which neither provides protection for a dodgy back three nor creates chances for an ageing strike force.
Pundits have been queueing up to predict West Ham will be relegated. Jamie Carragher is the latest to claim the Hammers are doomed.
Meanwhile the Hammers have been focusing on offloading “fringe” players in an effort to raise funds to help pay for further new signings before the window slams shut.
Now the West Ham board have issued a major transfer update amid four out, two in claims.
A top Sullivan ally claims West Ham could get a £10m cash injection via two sales in the near future.
It has been claimed that Andy Irving could be sold to a Scottish club after Celtic saw a £2.2m bid rejected recently.
West Ham board’s transfer update amid four out, two in claims
Irving is valued at £3.5m by the Hammers and there have been claims he could be sold soon.
Guido Rodriguez is on his way to Saudi for a £6.5m fee according to the same inside source at the club.
Inconsistent and out of favour Edson Alvarez has also been linked with a move away from the London Stadium imminently as well.
His former club Ajax are circling but have financial issues.
The Mexican is one of the more valuable players West Ham have left to sell and bringing in a decent fee for him would boost Potter’s kitty at the perfect time.
Because West Ham saw a £30m bid rejected for Southampton’s Mateus Fernandes and have been told to come back with an extra £20m.
After missing out on Jacob Ramsey and a host of other midfield targets, all of West Ham’s eggs are in the Fernandes basket.
Although there is talk West Ham could pivot to Ngal’ayel Mukau, as a more affordable alternative.
The Hammers got a sneak preview of Mukau during the friendly clash with Lille in east London last weekend.
It has been widely claimed West Ham are showing ‘serious interest’ after watching Mukau play the full 90 minutes of Saturday’s 1-1 draw in the capital.
West Ham insisted this week they are only looking to sign one new midfielder.
But that could change if Irving, Rodriguez and Alvarez all leave, as is being reported.
Another who could be on the way out is Konstantinos Mavropanos.
Villarreal and Roma have both been linked with the big Greek centre-back but it remains to be seen whether they will cough up what the Hammers want.
West Ham fans would not lose sleep over any of those departures, especially if it helped raise funds to get the likes of Fernandes and Mukau in the door.
Spanish midfielder Aleix Garcia has been linked again, a year after snubbing the Hammers for Bayer Leverkusen.
Brutally honest update will raise Hammers concerns
Brighton midfielder Facundo Bounnanote has been mentioned as a potential West Ham signing too.
Word is West Ham want at least two more signings while the four players mentioned could depart.
So we put the flurry of transfer claims to the top spokesman for West Ham’s owners heading into the opening weekend of the new Premier League season.
Unfortunately West Ham fans may not like the brutally honest response.
Hammers News asked the key senior board contact whether there was any progress on selling the players mentioned and getting some more money in to be able to sign two more players.
“No there is no progress on getting players in or moving players out,” came the short, sharp and grim response from the top spokesman for West Ham’s owners.
The clock is ticking.
Meanwhile the likes of Forest are closing in on not one but FOUR West Ham targets.
And Sunderland away will show just how much work, or otherwise, West Ham need to do in what remains of the window.
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