Danny Murphy lays into West Ham for transfer window failures
West Ham wasted their time in January chasing “unrealistic” transfer targets and might as well have tried to sign Lionel Messi, says Danny Murphy.
The former Liverpool player was highly unimpressed with the club’s attempted business during the transfer window, and believes they are now suffering the consequences of not “beefing up” the squad.
The Hammers were beaten 3-1 last night (Wednesday 2 March) by Southampton in the FA Cup, with the Saints having made nine changes to their line-up but still running out comfortable winners.
Speaking on talkSPORT, in a clip posted to their Twitter page, Murphy does not completely blame manager David Moyes but said: “It still doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that the forward areas is where they should have strengthened.
“We’ve talked about how they tried and who they tried to get, unrealistic targets. Give me one that was realistic.
“Do you know how many footballers are out there who are hungry, who are talented, who want to be in London, want to be in the Premier League?”
When host Sam Matterface raised the fact that the Irons tried to get Luis Diaz before he went to Liverpool, Murphy responded: “They might as well have tried to get Messi then.
And when reported Alex Crook mentioned the record bids for two Leeds stars the former Fulham man said: “With all due respect, if you’re an agent for Raphinha or Kalvin Phillips you’re not going to let them go to West Ham.
“If you can’t improve [the squad], fine. But if you need bodies in, you can get as good as you’ve got, or give you a different dimension, just to beef it up.”
Accurate
It sometimes is a knee-jerk reaction to demand signings are made at any football club whenever things aren’t going perfectly.
But in the Hammers’ case, things were going quite close to perfectly heading into January.
Taking into account the age-old view that the mid-season window is a bad time to buy, and the manager regularly espouses his stance of not wasting money, it was the right time.
Strengthening when you are ahead is important, hence why Sir Alex Ferguson would regularly buy players to add to title winning sides.
And with glaring needs that had been overcome in the first half of the season by luck and extra effort, such as no back up to Michail Antonio and injuries in defence, players needed to be brought in.
Murphy is right that it is not one extreme or the other, as there are (relatively) reasonably priced players who can provide support without having to revolutionise the team.
It would surely have been preferable to bring in one or two solid players and spend under £30million than fire out £50million-plus bids for players they couldn’t get.
If results continue to go the way they have lately, the failure will only continue to become more clear.
In other West Ham news, the massive news coming out of Chelsea could have major consequences for the Hammers.
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