West Ham’s £27m transfer collapse was Nuno Espirito Santo blessing in disguise
With the winter window closed, it’s now on Nuno Espirito Santo to guide West Ham to Premier League survival.
Axel Disasi’s deadline day loan move from Chelsea rounded off West Ham‘s winter transfer business, with four new signings arriving at the London Stadium.
So, Nuno now knows what he’s working with for the remainder of the season, and that involves a new-look strike force in Taty Castellanos and Pablo.
Castellanos signed from Lazio whilst Pablo joined West Ham from Gil Vicente respectively, with West Ham coughing up a combined total of £43.1million on the pair.
However, either one of or perhaps both of those players wouldn’t be wearing claret and blue had ill-luck not intervened.
West Ham had blockbuster Eddie Nketiah deal agreed
Both Castellanos and Pablo were signed by West Ham within the first week of the winter transfer window, showing a clear desire to make some instant upgrades to the forward line.
However, neither of those two players have really taken to life in English football as of yet, and look to require perhaps more time than the Hammers hoped to get up to speed.
And, in the relegation battle the team are currently in, that’s not really what Nuno needs from his new signings, with instant impact-makers the order of the day.
West Ham have long been interested in signing Eddie Nketiah, and it’s been revealed that they almost finally got their wish in the recent winter window.
As reported by The Athletic, West Ham had a £27million deal agreed to sign Nketiah, who has struggled to carve out a meaningful role at Crystal Palace.
However, the deal collapsed due to the 26-year-old suffering a hamstring injury in training, and as such, West Ham moved onto targets such as Castellanos and Pablo.
West Ham would’ve been overpaying for Nketiah
Whilst a frustrating occurrence for both parties, in particular Nketiah, West Ham chiefs shouldn’t be losing sleep over it.
£27m would have been an awful lot of money to spend on a striker who has scored 24 goals in 157 Premier League games, and one who has a history of injury troubles.
Nketiah has never scored more than five goals in a single Premier League season during his career, and has made just 11 league starts for Crystal Palace since signing from Arsenal the summer of 2024.
Therefore, West Ham should feel as though they’ve received a blessing in disguise, as paying that much for a player with Nketiah’s production record had major transfer bust potential.