**West Ham** manager Graham Potter must be quickly coming to the realisation that he has taken on a huge challenge when joining the Hammers.
The news that the Irons boss will not be receiving all of the money from the sale of [Mohammed Kudus](https://www.claretandhugh.info/mohammed-kudus-bio/) has come as a shock. However, there is a distinct possibility that it may have come as something of a surprise to Potter too.
The former Brighton and Chelsea boss was said to have negotiated hard when interviewed for the London Stadium gig. He was reluctant to take the position on a caretaker/temporary basis and instead pushed for a long-term deal.
Therefore, I always thought it was safe to assume he’d have negotiated to secure a transfer fund to spend—after all, why would [West Ham](https://www.claretandhugh.info/category/news/) pay £1m compensation for Kyle Macaulay as a recruitment expert if there is nobody to recruit?
Without being inside the room we’ll never know what happened, but I wonder if Potter knew he’d be aware of the need to sell players before buying? I’m now beginning to wonder if siphoning some of the generated funds off to fill a financial void is a new revelation for him too.
It would seem that Potter’s transfer budget is getting smaller by the day… I just wonder if he knew in advance?