West Ham United fan and budding journalist Kwame Boakye gives his views on the club’s start to the season as they now return from the first international break.
I’d say we’ve now officially had a good start to the season. We’ve recovered from the horror show against Newcastle, put the undeserved defeat to Arenal behind us and mercilessly slayed Wolves and Leicester.
Dare I say it, genuine optimism is breaking out amongst the Hammers fanbase. But this newfound sense of hope has taken a bit of a battering over all the outgoings and as yet – Vladimir Coufal aside – no incomings. We already had an unbalanced squad before this cull, we now have a depleted one.
On Friday the domestic transfer window closes, and West Ham can have excuses or we can have results. The fans don’t want to hear the same old mantra of “we tried”. That rhetoric is unacceptable and frankly embarrassing.
When Grady Diangana was sold to West Brom – a sale which enraged many to the point that captain and longest serving player Mark Noble publicly tweeted his disapproval – the powers that be promised: “The money received for Grady will be reinvested entirely in the team.”
Thus far this has not been the case, time is now running out. A deal for Brentford winger Said Benrahma looks set to fall through.
Whilst I question the strategy of selling Diangana to supposedly strengthen our defence, then attempt to sign another winger, the apparent breakdown of this transfer only adds fuel to the fires of frustration.
It remains to be seen if whoever is in charge of recruitment these days can still bring in the players needed to strengthen what is now one of the Premier League’s smallest squads. No doubt our first XI is strong but a couple of injuries and our promising start could be nothing more than that.
The supposed collapse of the Benrahma transfer will surely now see the club put all their eggs in Josh King’s basket. He is a fine forward, to score 48 Premier League goals for Bournemouth is very impressive. West Ham’s top scorer in the competition’s history, Paolo Di Canio, has one less.
King would represent good business for the club, however with recent departures his signature alone would not be enough to salvage a chastening window for West Ham.
Ten players have left since July, two players have joined, now the club have until Friday to fix this.
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