FORGET the Carabao Cup nonsense last night for a second, if you can. West Ham have left themselves a mountain to climb in the transfer window which closes on 1st September. Twelve senior player departures this summer leaves the side completely inadequately set up for a Premier League campaign. Bottom of the league after two games with eight goals conceded means the alarm bells should be ringing loud and clear.
Something of a relief, then, to hear of the late frenzy which has hit the Hammers’ transfer effort as a last minute panic sets in.
As Gonzo wrote yesterday, the Hammers were reported as having upto eight bids going in, in addition to the ‘done deal’ signalled by Fabrizio Romano yesterday for Monaco’s defensive midfielder Soungoutou Magassa who is due to travel for a medical before signing a six year permanent contract at West Ham.
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Great: eight bids- two or three extra signings then, you’d hope.
Which begs the question – where is the money coming from to make these bids?
Those who read our articles religiously – there are a few- will recall the ‘insider’ comment from the weekend regarding a sale of Brazilian midfielder Lucas Paquetá:
“We’d have to bring in a lot of players first, to even consider it”: Which suggests to me, being cynical, that West Ham have already worked out how to fund their last minute transfer window splurge. Eight bids in, one already accepted – how many is ‘a lot’ of players, do you think, two or three?
Wouldn’t surprise me to see the Hammers back in for Mateus Fernandes to do a late deal with Southampton and bring in one more signing on top, at the expense of a sale of the Hammers’ Brazilian for £50 million plus. Which would be a kind of bittersweet ‘end of one era, start of another’ at London Stadium.