West Ham United ‘vulnerable’ to transfer hijacks claims shocked journalist
The West Ham tactic of pursuing a huge number of midfield targets at once this summer has shocked Dean Jones, who believes it has left them “vulnerable” to being hijacked for deals.
The list of names linked to the London Stadium after Declan Rice was sold to Arsenal for £105m continues to grow, with Philip Billing emerging on Friday (21 July) to join the likes of early targets Edson Alvarez and Joao Palhinha through to more recent options Conor Gallagher and Leon Goretzka.
David Moyes is likely to require multiple signings at the position this summer, but despite bids being made for the likes of Denis Zakaria and James Ward-Prowse as well, nobody has been wrapped up, and former Eurosport journalist Jones can’t get his head around the strategy.
He told GIVEMESPORT (20 July): “I’ve never known anything like it when it comes to West Ham approaching the market and trying to find solutions in a certain area of the field.
“They open the net so wide that they then go and have discussions with 10 different players and slowly, slowly narrow things down, but they’re always leaving themselves vulnerable to other clubs coming into those conversations with other players that they actually do rate highly and actually end up taking them off their toes. So that’s where this becomes difficult.”
Focus
In an ideal world West Ham would surely sign one high-priced option and supplement with one or two cheaper deals to flesh out the midfield.
As it is they seem to be adding every possible option to the list and incrementally negotiating with all of them, which is clearly taking its time already, but also won’t do wonders for convincing any individual player how much the club wants them.
Since it was by no means a surprise that Rice left, and replacements may have been needed for Tomas Soucek and Flynn Downes anyway, it is strange that West Ham didn’t have a clear plan mapped out for when it happened.
Delays at Arsenal’s end may still have derailed some pursuits but if groundwork had been put in ahead of time to sound out options then the most valued and most available could have been pursued heavily straight away.
A breakthrough on one of the names in the next few days could give the window the jumpstart that it apparently needs at the London Stadium.
But with nobody yet brought in and relatively extensive work needed, not just in central midfield, the current situation feels confused.
In other West Ham news, Liverpool have now entered the frame for a target that may have already been encouraging the Irons to chase him.