A month of the 2017 summer transfer window has passed and, bar the free transfer of Pablo Zabaleta, West Ham have remained sedentary. You don’t need me to tell you this, though, as most fans seem to be going into meltdown over it. It’s understandable, too, when you consider that clubs who the Hammers want to be competing with like Everton and clubs who they need to be finishing above like Bournemouth have already been very busy making top signings.
While doing business early reduces the competition you face for players’ signatures and allows them to settle into their new team quickly, it certainly doesn’t equate to success. Take the Premier League champions last season, for example. Chelsea made a total of five first team signings last summer and not one of them was in the first month of the transfer window. Michy Batshuayi was their first acquisition on July 3rd, and they made two of their signings on August 31st – Marcos Alonso and David Luiz. Player of the Season, N’Golo Kante, wasn’t signed until July 16th.
If this isn’t evidence enough that new signings are worth waiting for, take a look at six West Ham first team players that were signed more than a month into the summer transfer window – including last years Hammer of the Year.
