The midfield. It has probably had as much written about it as ‘West Ham’s striker search‘ in the last season following the failure of last summer’s window to build anything other than a stodgy slow midfield than was as mobile as a set of traffic cones.
The restructure involving players of pace and the ability to move the ball forward is seen as a priority certainly by the fans who had to put up with endless games of the side-side-back waltz last season.
Good players don’t come cheap. At the top of the tree, clubs like Liverpool and Arsenal shell out hundred million – plus figures for top players, yet West Ham can’t make a decision over a decent performer at a third of that call. Seemingly this season even the ‘modest’ thirty million quid players are out of reach.
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Which means that when a hugely promising Richard Rios has a known target price of £30 million ( as per his Brazil side Palmeiras) the unambitious Hammers are nowhere. Manchester “*United are said to be preparing a formal offer worth £26m, including performance-related bonuses.*“(Sportwitness.co.uk)
Rios in any case had apparently turned down mooted interest from ‘lowly’ West Ham: It will be interesting to see how the lower-finishing Red Devils get on with a bid. At least they’ve got enough money to spend on improving their squad.
Richard Rios – rejected West Ham
According to the report, “With the player focused on a move to Italy, any Premier League side will likely face an uphill battle to secure his signing.”
That’ll change as soon as Rios sees the offer: £300k a week at Old Trafford will soon turn his head.
Meanwhile the Hammers can get back to doing a deal with (main pic) Josh Brownhill. Sigh.