Following last season’s relegation from the Premier League, it has unfortunately turned into the kind of summer and transfer window that West Ham United fans up and down the country had been hoping to avoid when we first appointed head coach Nuno Espirito Santo.
Deadline Day Slams Shut
Sadly it was not to be, and with us now edging nearer to the Deadline Day window slamming shut much later on this evening at 11pm, the educated guess is that we are probably not yet quite done with the ins and outs. With the likes of Crysencio Summerville, Mateus Fernandes, Callum Wilson, Freddie Potts, James Ward-Prowse and El Hadji Malick Diouf all moving on and departing for pastures new so far this summer, every faithful Hammers fan knows that others like Jarrod Bowen could have followed – and there are probably a few more we would love to see move on, mentioning no names.
With this season’s aim purely being in attempting to achieve promotion at the first time of asking and putting ourselves firmly back in the Premier League betting lines, the benefit, of course, is that we should have more than covered the financial aspects we would have suffered from the drop and the loss of the top flight revenues. Some of that money has also been spent on Celtic’s Arne Engels and Tottenham Hotspurs’ Manor Solomon but it should definitely leave enough in the kitty to strengthen further given our aim so we avoid the possibility of two second tier seasons where our position will worsen even further.
Form Has To Pick Up Quickly
Starting to the second tier campaign with two draws and a defeat is far from what fans wanted, and for any kind of promotion push this year, that kind of form needs to quickly turn around and start becoming far more regular back to back wins at least.
With our chase for Wolverhampton Wanderers defender Ladislav Krejci now likely to fall down as the Midlands club are maintaining their position that they will not sell to a fellow Championship club, we have seemingly replaced Crysensio with the capture of Viking FK’s young Norwegian international Under 21 winger Edvin Austbo.
The 21 year old scored six times and provided seven assists as they lifted the Eliteserien title for the first time in 34 years, and he was also named the league’s Young Player of the Year as they secured qualification through to the Champions League group phase in the process. As Austbo praised the talks he held personally with Nuno, and director of player recruitment Nils Koppen, as being key to the deal going through, Koppen also revealed that he had been on the radar for quite a while and that he had been tracked very ‘closely’ over that time.
The Rumour Mill
As he follows Venezuela midfielder Keiber Lamadrid, experienced Dutch defender Joel Veltman, Israel winger Manor Solomon, Belgium midfielder Arne Engels, Suriname striker Joel Piroe and England U19 international Divine Mukasa, through the doors to become our seventh signing of the summer, clearly the interest in Krejci means that fans should be able to look forward to at least one more signing, likely for the defensive unit, before the deadline closes.
We will just have to see who it is given the rumblings on the speculation rumour mill.
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