James Wood Fan Q&A: Toney & Abraham would be ‘Fantastic’ signings for West Ham
Every week we’ll be asking West Ham fans on Twitter and Facebook for questions that will be answered by our editor, James Wood. You can join in by liking West Ham Zone on Facebook or following James on Twitter, and watching out for weekly mailbag posts.
It’s fair to say that since moving to the London Stadium, West Ham have struggled to find success in the transfer market.
Since David Moyes has returned for his second reign, he has done well to shift some dead weight. He’s gone on to build a young and hungry squad.
Jarrod Bowen, Tomas Soucek, Said Benrahma and Vladimir Coufal have all joined on permanent deals and have been very successful this season.
There are a couple of other dealings that Moyes needs to take care of this summer, however. We asked for your burning questions about the Hammers this week for West Ham Zone editor James Wood to answer.
One fan wanted to know whether the manager will be backed in the summer.
The club looks likely to invest in Moyes and his squad this summer given the success he’s had this campaign. His shrewd business so far with the likes of Dawson and Coufal have won a lot of plaudits. He is deserving of a good summer transfer window.
Mistakes were made in the past. Manuel Pellegrini was backed heavily and allowed to bring in whoever he wanted. He spent £126.9million on Sebastian Haller, Felipe Anderson, Pablo Fornals and Issa Diop across two summer windows [TransferMarkt]. Diop and Fornals have come good, but the two record signings were huge flops and the board are wary of that.
Due to this, Moyes had a fair bit of mess to clear up. Gone are Jack Wilshere, Carlos Sanchez, Haller, and Anderson (for now). He still has the money Haller money to invest, and this will definitely go on a striker. Ivan Toney of Brentford is reportedly on the radar of the club [Mail Online] as well look to provide competition for Michail Antonio.
Another striker linked is England international Tammy Abraham [The Sun]. He has struggled for minutes under new Chelsea boss Tomas Tuchel and would be an excellent option for us. Either of these striking options would be fantastic signings for the club and definitely help us to push on next season.
With regards to Jesse Lingard, it appears the club would really like to make his loan move a permanent one [The Mirror]. He has been outstanding for us – four goals, an assist and two penalties won in six games is extraordinary. We really missed him against Manchester United at the weekend. His energy and attacking drive are crucial to the team and we should be doing what we can to sign him.
In other West Ham news, Keith Hackett has shared his views on the officiating as we lost to Manchester United.