By Louis Nixon
**It has been a struggling window for the Hammers so far, and frustrating for Nuno, but with one day to go, what do West Ham require to bolster their survival chances?**
Nuno all window has been banging on about needing to ‘rebalance’ the squad for January, which, whilst being true, we evidently haven’t granted his wishes that he’s specifically asked for. We did sign the two strikers which he desperately needed and unsurprisingly, we’ve become a much better attacking side and are playing some of the best attacking Football in a long while… back the manager and look what happens!
Nuno didn’t feel the need for the midfield to be reinforced and that’s why we’ve been focused on getting rid of midfielders rather than signing them, this has also been his primary drive in ‘rebalencing’ the squad, which was very much needed.
We went into January with far too many midfielders for a side that is no longer in Europe so a housecleaning was required, but whilst tidying up, we also did manage to free up a lot of the wage bill, of what should’ve been spent on bringing in new players, but it hasn’t.
Deadline day is upon us and we have yet to sign any defender, of which Nuno has been crying out for all January. In order to stay in the Premier League this season, West Ham needs central defenders, and Nuno needs options.
We now find ourselves in a position where Nuno is forced to play Max Kilman for the next three games and despite his eagnerness to bring on Kilman from the bench, we can blatently see that he has no desire to start him as he’s dropped him from the starting squad, and after that Chelsea performance it wouldn’t suprise me if he doesn’t want to substitute him on again! Defenders HAVE to be signed today, either one or two.
These are very worrying times as the Hammers now find themselves on Deadline Day worrying about who to or not to sign. We’ll likely have an array of targets lined up before 7 PM, but it’ll be a question of whether they come at a ‘reasonable price’ and are ‘value for money’.
Why is that concerning? Because, despite our dire need to get players through the door, we appear to be sitting here twiddling our fingers waiting for the clock to tick down.
This transfer window could decide West Ham’s fate this season and perhaps the club’s future if the worst were to occur. This is certainly not a time to muck around.