West Ham United: Pundit blasts behind-scenes staff after transfer failure – ‘Incompetent’
Frank McAvennie believes the Profit and Sustainability restrictions at Premier League clubs aren’t to blame after West Ham failed with late deadline day transfer business.
French journalist Seb Ecrivain Foot shared on his personal X account (2 February) that an attacking panic buy on deadline day did not come to fruition for West Ham and there may have been a link to the initial failures of Pablo Fornals and Said Benrahma’s exits.
The Hammers were linked with several names over the last few days of the window to replace both Benrahma and Fornals, including Al Ittihad’s Jota, FC FC Nordsjælland’s Ibrahim Osman as well as Ismaila Sarr (Graeme Bailey, 1 February).
However, no moves materialised on deadline day leaving David Moyes’ squad well short on attacking options for the second half of the season.
Speaking to West Ham Zone, McAvennie said: “Nah I don’t think the Profit and Sustainability stuff is to blame, I think that’s all conspiracy theories.
“It’s blatant that some senior figures at West Ham, you know those in recruitment, are incompetent at their jobs.
“Whoever was involved with it all, I don’t think it was David Sullivan, he doesn’t get involved in all that but whoever was put in charge of all that stuff should know what to say and do with signings.
“I mean, all that drama with Fornals and Benrahma was baffling.
“Technology has moved on from those fax machines and all that. You can complete deals by the click of a button on your phones now, there are no excuses whatsoever.
“Let’s not blame FFP and all that nonsense for our failures in the market, it was the incompetent figures behind the scenes.”
David Moyes left in a rut at the London Stadium
Taking away all the ifs and buts, West Ham were not even close to following Everton and Nottingham Forest in being charged with breaching the Premier League’s PSR rules.
Clubs are permitted to lose £105m over three years – a contentious figure given inflation since that was set in stone – but they recorded a loss of “just” £32.7m.
Taking last summer into account, the £100m-plus sale of Rice to Arsenal has given the club plenty of room to play with in terms of finances and strengthening the squad.
So how no one was brought in on transfer deadline day when the club knew they will be losing Fornals and Benrahma is quite baffling and now leaves Moyes desperately short in the market.
We’ve already seen West Ham’s last couple of games after the transfer deadline that Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus need extra help and an extra attacker signing would have been very useful.
Whatever those failures are down to remains to be seen but what could be very clear at the club in the coming weeks is that Moyes may not be able to achieve his ambitions with the options at his disposal.
In other West Ham news, a profit and sustainability situation emerged in one Premier League club’s pursuit of a Hammers player.
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