January (claret and) blues
An opinion piece by WHUST member Katie Shergold
January’s transfer window has closed. It’s yet another disaster in which West Ham United failed to sign a single player.
I was shocked that we didn’t sign more players in the summer window, purely because we needed more squad depth if we were trying to compete in the Premier League, FA Cup, Carabao Cup and Europa League. But to let another window pass by is just inexcusable.
I hope we don’t see David Moyes defend any poor performances by complaining of injuries or fatigue, because this was the time to be eliminating those issues and I truly believe the whole club failed.
Two players needed
In my opinion we needed to bring in two players at the very minimum, a centre back and a striker.
The need to sign a striker has been a familiar theme over the years. All of us fans know that we desperately need an alternative for Antonio. Don’t get me wrong, I love Antonio, and, on his day, he is unplayable, but I think we can all agree that he is not an out-and-out striker that we can rely on all season.
Even if by some miracle Michail was to be fit all season, we need someone to be challenging him for his place and that won’t be happening. The Board, David Moyes and Rob Newman have had 388 days (122 days for Newman) to find the striker they wanted and West Ham so desperately needed.
Yet even with the head of recruitment joining in October, we are still in the same position as we have been the whole year.
Lack of ambition
To conclude this transfer window with another catastrophic failure shows the lack of ambition of this club’s leadership and how far away we are from ever seriously competing to be a massive club.
The biggest tragedy is the message this sends to the players at the club. Why would the likes of Declan Rice and Jarrod Bowen want to stay? Fifth in the Premier League and still in the Europa League, if you add squad depth and sign players with promise, that shows the intent and ambition to build a future project.
Instead, this window shows the complete opposite and I believe this is the real failure we will look back on in the future.
When we eventually say goodbye to Declan Rice, I will remember this day and won’t forget who was to blame for us being the same old West Ham United, never having the ambition that the board promised us.
Unless expressly stated otherwise, opinions given on this website are those of the individuals making them, and not those of WHUST.