West Ham seem to be suffering from a transfer crisis of identity, and in many respects, we appear to be witnessing an attempt at panic buying from the club.
There certainly appears to be no consistency in the players currently being targeted and bid for by The Hammers’ negotiation team.
Consider for a moment the differences in age profile and characteristics of some of the most recent targets. West Ham’s first official bid of the current transfer window was for Aleix Garcia, who ended up opting to sign for Bayer Leverkusen. This was followed by a brief flirtation with Manchester United’s Scott McTominay, only to discover the player would demand £10 million per year in wages.
The scattergun attempts at spending are also mirrored in the position of right back, where the three main transfer targets of the past week bear almost no resemblance in playing style to one another. The same could also be said about striker targets, which include anyone from the old and injured fox in the box Callum Wilson, to proven speedster Jonathan David, or the young, unproven hulking physicality of Jhon Duran.
West Ham’s three main RB targets are nothing alike
In short, there appears to be very little in common with any of the targets. It’s as if there is no clear cohesive strategy and no real sense of what type of player or age demographic the club wishes to sign.
Looking at the manner in which West Ham are going about their transfer business, it is very difficult to conclude that any of it is being driven by an analytical, moneyball approach to transfers. I’m not entirely sure whether we are waiting for ‘Project Steidten’ to begin or whether this is actually it? Perhaps there is a strategy, maybe there is some connected thinking which links all of our transfer targets, and I’m just too dumb to see what it is.
I certainly hope that’s the case because from the outside looking in, the whole strategy appears to be a bit of a scramble.
