West Ham Spend Spend Spend-The Numbers Don't Add Up!

These are exciting times at the London Stadium, or Bad Ragaz to be precise, many West Ham fans are in disbelief that the club have not only acquired an attack minded world class manager but are also 'splashing the cash' in order to bring in the sort of 'top class' players that fans had been promised would arrive once the club had left the Boleyn Ground, this was part of the master plan to take the club to the 'next level'. So why the sudden change and where is the money coming from?

As we have mentioned in recent editorials this season is unique in that the board can spend some real money, last season they were unable to because of the rule change that meant they couldn't take out a 'pay day' loan against future earnings, this was a common place practice not only for West Ham but also Everton until they were taken over. So last season they were unable to borrow in the way that they had before which left a £50 Million 'black hole' to deal with, it's a pity that the board or someone from the club's hierarchy didn't have the cojones to explain this, had they done so fans would have been far more sympathetic and understood what was going on, unfortunatley due to the 'preening' nature of all top football club owners, honesty is seen as a sign of weakness when it comes to discussing financial affairs!

Thus far, West Ham are virtually commited to a £100 Million spend if they continue to pursue the Felipe Anderson deal, and that excludes their wages commitments! So obviously the much vaunted £75 Million transfer kitty will be well and truly smashed, something or more accurately someone has to give. The media is becoming obsessed with 'bouncing out' Mikail Antonio, further more they are valuing the 27 year old winger at only £15 Million whereas his true value is more like £25 Million, likewise several other 'fringe' players have been mentioned but with a very low return.

West Ham are in the fortunate position of not HAVING to sell players to balance the books at least not initially, far better to hold onto players who could be sold at a premium during the January transfer window. That said Andy Carroll is about to begin the final year of his contract and might be sold, but Manuel Pellegrini might want to retain the Big Geordie as part of a plan B to bring him of the bench to 'batter' opponents in the closing stages of games, whether Carroll would be happy in that role remains to be seen.

Interestingly Carroll was rather recalcitrant when commenting to the official WHUFC.com website about being in Switzerland, "“It’s fantastic, the facilities that we’re in. The hotel is brilliant and the pitches we’re training on are great as well, so everyone is enjoying it and everyone is in a good mood". more tellingly when talking about training with the new manager he went on to say “He seems good. He knows what he wants. Obviously, his CV says it all and we’ve just got to listen to him. He’s brought in his staff and they’ve been fantastic as well. “We’ve just got to work hard, listen to him and hopefully we can push on this season.”

We are not sure at the Org but are of the opinion that this is the first time in six years, if you include his one year on loan, that Andy Carroll has been fit for West Ham United at the start of a season, but unless 'El Pel' is some kind of fitness genius most people expect 'Big Andy' to pick up his usual half season threatening injury sooner rather than later, we expect Andy to be gone by the end of this window despite his proclamations. - Ed