West Ham’s owners have laid out a clear transfer plan for the week ahead, making a fresh pledge to push for one deal in particular as the new season looms large.
With the Hammers keen to back Graham Potter, it looks like a pivotal few days for David Sullivan and Kyle Macaulay after a lull in activity following the signings of El Hadji Malick Diouf and Kyle Walker-Peters.
When this weekend rolls around, the new Premier League season will be just two weeks away.
There is no hiding the fact it has been a disappointing summer overall for West Ham so far.
Only two signings have been made and the club has been forced to do the unthinkable and sell one of its best players – Mohammed Kudus – to bitter rivals Spurs.
The silver lining to that £54.5m deal is that West Ham’s board vowed to give all the money to the manager for much-needed new signings.
Potter promised Hammers fans an “exciting and interesting” transfer window.
West Ham still have so much to do with new season looming
Diouf looks an excellent addition and Walker-Peters is a savvy signing. But there is still so much work to do and time is running out for Potter to get players in before the big kick-off.
The Hammers will only have another two weeks after the season starts before the window slams shut.
There have been positives this summer and the squad looks much more together.
But West Ham had planned to sign new forwards, at least two midfielders, a centre-back and a goalkeeper as well as sorting the full-backs.
The Hammers have looked extremely limited up front in pre-season.
Niclas Fullkrug is the last senior striker standing at West Ham.
The ageing German is a big fan favourite despite spending two thirds of his debut season out injured and scoring just three goals.
Fullkrug turns 33 next season and despite dropping three kilos, his lack of pace and dynamism has stood out like a sore thumb in games against Grasshoppers and Man United.
West Ham’s midfield that started against the Red Devils was slow, immobile and lacking in any guile whatsoever.
The defence still looks questionable with Max Kilman worryingly out-paced by Rasmus Hojlund, despite having a significant headstart over the Dane.
Jean-Clair Todibo looks decent enough on the ball but suspect in the air and one on one.
Nayef Aguerd continues to show all the frailties that saw him loaned out and put up for sale with no takers.
But as worrying as all that is West Ham’s goalkeeper situation.
Now West Ham’s owners have outlined their transfer plan for the week with an exciting new pledge.
Potter raised eyebrows when he released veteran trio Aaron Cresswell, Lukasz Fabianski and Vladimir Coufal last month.
There were arguments that all three were deserving of new deals.
But the Hammers boss was adamant he wanted to start drastically lowering the average age of the squad.
West Ham owners outline transfer plan with exciting new pledge
Diouf, 20, and Walker-Peters, 28, have shaved 20 years off that figure by replacing Cresswell – who turns 36 in December and Coufal, who is 33 next month.
Whoever replaces 40-year-old Fabianski will likely take another big chunk off the age of the West Ham squad.
And the goalkeeper position is a major concern.
One of the reasons many felt Fabianski should be handed a new deal was because Alphonse Areola has been so unconvincing.
The Frenchman is among West Ham’s best-paid players on £120k per week.
But he has failed to make the number one position his own since a role reversal with Fabianski.
Even last season, the former Poland star looked a much safer pair of hands when he came into the side for Areola.
The ex PSG and Real Madrid man is a superb shot-stopper capable of stunning saves.
Areola all-round game is nowhere near as polished as Fabianski’s was, though.
He can be rash, poor on crosses and lacks command of his area for someone who is 6ft 5in with a huge wingspan.
Areola’s weaknesses were there for the world to see when he made mistakes for both goals as the Hammers lost 2-1 to Man United in New York.
A simple collection of an unchallenged cross turned into a Red Devils penalty when Areola fumbled the ball into Diouf’s back then dived at the Man United player’s feet from behind to try and recover it.
Areola looked like a man who knows he is fighting to keep his place.
And that’s exactly what he will be doing this week if West Ham have their way.
Beyond Areola, the Hammers only have Wes Foderingham as back-up.
That is a frightening prospect given how high the stakes are going to be in what’s expected to be the most competitive Premier League season for years.
Help is on the way, though, it seems.
West Ham pledge to sign a new goalkeeper
West Ham have been linked with a number of goalkeepers as they look to sign a new long-term number one.
There was apparent interest in Djorde Petrovic and Caoimhin Kelleher but they signed for Bournemouth and Brentford respectively.
Links to Aaron Ramsdale have so far come to nothing either, much to the relief of many Hammers fans.
But three names very much in the goalkeeper frame are Leicester’s Mads Hermansen, Parma’s Zion Suzuki and Sheffield United’s Michael Cooper.
It was reported at the weekend that Leicester are braced for West Ham to sign 25-year-old Dane Hermansen.
However, Newcastle are trying to hijack West Ham’s Hermansen move, reportedly forcing Cooper to the top of the list.
Japan star Suzuki has been consistently linked but Parma are said to want a huge £30m fee.
Whether it is one of those three stars or another target who has been kept under wraps, West Ham fully intend on signing a new goalkeeper this week.
That’s according to the top spokesman for West Ham’s owners overnight.
Asked whether there was any progress on new signings after a lull in activity, the senior London Stadium contact issued an encouraging update after Areola’s shocker vs Man United.
“We are working hard on a new goalkeeper this week,” the top spokesman for West Ham’s owners told Hammers News.
“We want to get that sorted as a priority next and we are very short in that position.”
That will come as a major relief to West Ham fans – and no doubt Potter too.
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