02 August 2023 , 18:01
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West Ham's hierarchy know what they are doing but you can understand why fans are getting nervous.
With just over a week until the new Premier League season, the club have yet to spend any of their Declan Rice money. Or the transfer kitty set aside for new signings.
Pacy, free-scoring Manchester City starlet Carlos Borges, 19, has chosen to go to Ajax instead of the London stadium. David Moyes and Technical Director Tim Steidten would appear to have varying views on transfer market strategy. And striker Gianluca Scamacca wants to go back to Italy, just 12 months after signing for the Hammers from Sassuolo.
Then again, Scamacca hasn’t been in Moyes’ plans for some time now. He didn’t play a single game during the last three months of last season. The Hammers lifted the Europa Conference League trophy on June 7 without him.
The trouble is, clubs like West Ham don’t have the luxury of simply diving into the market and plucking out the players they want as replacements for underachievers.
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Even the B and C-listers these days prefer to wait for the bigger clubs to come in for them - even allowing for the Hammers’ momentous Europa Conference League win last season - before deciding on their destinations. So the wait for fresh blood at the London Stadium goes on.
A deal for Swiss Juventus midfielder Denis Zakaria is already done. But you can understand that West Ham don’t want to be taken for a ride by selling clubs elsewhere, well aware that David Moyes has the first instalment of that £105million from Arsenal burning a hole in his pockets.
Nor is it the Hammers’ fault if Chelsea dynamo Conor Gallagher and Manchester United ’s Scott McTominay both want to wait until they know where they stand going into the new campaign before deciding whether to leave their respective clubs.
Conor Gallagher remains a target for West Ham (Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC)And it is no surprise that relegated Southampton want to exercise their right to slap a £40million price tag on one of Moyes’ prime targets, midfielder James Ward Prowse.
The Saints might argue that Leicester and England midfielder James Maddison went to Spurs for a similar fee. A deal should get done once heads are banged together.
It could be that the impasse opens the way for Moyes to indulge new Technical Director Tim Steidten who is keen on Monaco midfielder Youssof Fofana.
The 24-year-old Frenchman is understood to be a preferred target of Steidten but Moyes is believed to want players with Premier League experience.
Following the failed, disastrous spell during which Manuel Pellegrini wasted a small fortune - cash West Ham can’t afford to waste - on experimental flops, Moyes may well have a point.
But the Scot will also be heartened by the news that Ward Prowse wants to return to the Premier League, play for David Moyes and appear in the Europa League next season. Something, clearly will have to give. But sometimes, transfer stand-offs are no respecter of fans’ frustrations.
The Hammers have been aware for some time that Scamacca has wanted to go back to Serie A. The 24-year-old was never a good fit.
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Fellow frontman Michail Antonio also wants to explore pastures new with West Ham looking at Venezia and Finland striker Joel Pohjanpalo as a potential replacement.
The 28-year-old, who has previously played for Bayer Leverkusen, scored 19 goals from his 37 Serie B appearances this season.
Whatever happens, there is confidence at the London stadium that they will have at least four new signings by the end of the transfer window. Like elsewhere in London, fans will need to trust in their process.