Backs To The Future

Even before Saturdays lamentable 2-0 defeat at home to Newcastle, the signs of tension surrounding West Ham United's lack of positive transfer activity were palpable with a collective 'fear' regarding the future. Even a blind man can see the urgent need for at least one new full back, preferably two, but it seems the 'obsession' with regards to the proposed signing of James Tarkowski has blinded the necessary vision required for the future.

For sure Tarkowski is an excellent player, but given the paltry transfer funds available to David Moyes the money must be spent wisely, and paying between £30-35 Million for just one player,no matter how good he is, just doesn't make sense in the current climate, furthermore most fans are more than a little suspicious about any deal for the England International centre back. On too many occasions in the past fans have been given the spiel that the club are after this star, then that star, and then another star, the one thing most of these potential signings have in common is that they never actually ended up happening.

The feeling of deja vu won't go away when it comes to the Tarkowski deal, it follows the usual procedure, expensive player, initial incredibly low ball offer which is then followed incrementally with offers that are still too low, and finally the player doesn't end up at the club allowing the owners to say"Well we tried our best to get the deal done but (a) the price went up or (b) we just ran out of time (c) the selling club changed their minds".

Even at this stage fans would still prefer the truth, there is no need for the owners to bullshit about 'huge' player deals in order to sell season tickets, so why on earth not be truthful? It makes no sense to 'spin supporters a yarn' when there is no need. Everyone knows the club is broke as a result of previous mistakes, so why not concentrate of providing fans 'realistic' transfer targets that might actually happen? To that purpose there are still several promising full backs available at decent prices, spend what little money there is to shore up the full back situation and then invest what ever is left for a midfielder/central defender.

Tomas Soucek's old team Slavia Prague have a couple of players available who won't bust the bank one of which is Vladimir Coufal, by trade 27 year old Coufal is a right back but can play at left back and in central defence, and Shakhtar Donetsk defender Mykola Matviyenko is another good option to bring to the London Stadium with a price that is 1/4 of James Tarkowski's.

Surely the club must have learned by now that trying to live beyond it's means always ends up one way, and that is BADLY, so why not just 'suck it up' and buy less spectacular players that fit within the club's 'real' budget? It's not rocket science, it's just pounds and pence! - Ed