If there was any doubt about the current financial state of West Ham and the potential bleak future - and the way David Sullivan runs transfer business - then this January window just about sums it all up.
We are staring relegation in the face with an ever decreasing squad, and West Ham fans expected a defiant attempt to avoid catastrophe. No club worth one billion euros - that’s £740m - has ever been relegated to the Championship, that’s the financial disaster confronting the club.
But on the final day of the window, just a loan deal for Axel Disasi, once a World Cup finalist and a £40m plus player but now without a Premier League game as a Chelsea outcast this season, was on the cards.
The anger from fans is palpable. We knew last summer there was a desperate need to improve our central defence, now shipping two goals a game without a clean sheet for months. There should have been plenty of time in the first half of this season to get this situation sorted.
But throughout January nothing seemed to happen. Nuno complained about the lack of action. The board mouthpieces then responded suggesting it was the coach holding things up.
So we were left trying to sign Disasi, who had turned us down once before and seemed to take a long time on Monday to agree to a medical, as the last ditch option.
The situation turned to near panic when Jean-Clair Todibo got himself sent-off on Saturday evening at Chelsea and a three match ban was imposed. It’s even been suggested that we pulled the plug on Max Kilman's move to Crystal Palace because of that hot-headed incident at Stamford Bridge.
So the hunt for a new defender increased. We bid £12m for Southampton’s Taylor Harwood-Bellis, they wanted £20m and that’s where Sullivan’s interested ended. The link with Toulouse defender Charlie Cresswell was bubbling under all month but the French club, who didn’t have to sell, wanted big money which put us off.
Maybe the fact that Leeds had a 15 per cent sell-on clause in the deal when the sold the England Under 21 star for £3m, has some impact. Hard to see Sullivan wanting to see our money ending up at Elland Road to boost their transfer kitty, as relegation rivals.
There were a couple of loan gaps available for us with Igor going back to Brighton, but Spurs blocked any chance we had of taking ‘keeper Antonin Kinsky on loan earlier in the day.
And while our relegation rivals Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest were both spending in their bids to avoid the drop, we were left seriously embarrassed.
And, of course, with so much at stake, Sullivan actually made a profit on the window. Our incoming deals cost around £50m, while outgoings pulled in £56m, including the departure of Lucas Paqueta with seemingly no attempt made to sign the replacement Nuno Espirito Santo wanted.
In all, 14 players left the club, loans, frees and for folding money, with five incoming, two of which were loans with only Pablo, Adama Traore and Tati Castellanos costing money.
And slowly the penny has dropped. The accounts, due by the end of the month, will show a £100m debt. Sullivan will also have pay day loans to repay while still owing money on previous transfers. The collapse of our finances, if relegation happens, must also have been part of his thinking.
Not being sure of what transfer regulations we will encounter depending on what division we are in suggests Sullivan has been trimming the costs to make next year’s accounts more palatable.
Either way, the relentless transfer nonsense pushed out by the grifters who hang on ever Sullivan word, is just misleading the public. But why would they tell the truth about our financial position and the fact that we are, in effect, broke? Who would read their transfer speculation if such deals were impossible, if that was obviously the state of play? Disingenuous springs to mind.
So we’ve had to sit and watch a classic Sullivan window. Low offers rejected, the usual “ Sullivan special” - one of those debatable arrivals from South America. And this one, Keiber Lamadrid cost a £700,000 loan fee and Nuno doesn’t think he’ll be up to the first team this season, although he played for the Under 21s this week.
And for me, the kick in the teeth is the loss of 18 year-old Emeka Adiele, who has been with the club since he was eight. For whatever reason his contract is up in the summer and there didn’t seem to be a deal he’ll accept.
One of the best youngsters in the Academy, he’s joined Utrecht on a four-year contract. You have to wonder about situation like this, a left wing back he’s scored five and assisted in 14 this season. I fear this is a serious loss.
Of course there was one success for the ownership. They managed to ban a few lads for holding up a banner in the BML. You’d think the club was bigger than this and had better things to do.
None of this improves the atmosphere between fans and club. A totally unsatisfactory transfer window will just deepen the rift.
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