Hammers Left In The Dust Or Smart Call?

The expression cracked record doesn't mean much to a 'soshall' media driven audience nowadays, even a 'blipping CD' has become a passé expression, so perhaps an Xbox digital glitch or server outage is more of a 'current' term. Whatever phrase you care to use, it wouldn't be far off describing West Ham United's pursuit of 'fresh legs' for what is an ageing and wafer thin squad.

There is a fine line between hitting the panic button and sitting on the fence so long that the world passes by. David Moyes has an 'extremely' limited transfer budget to operate with, players sales are unlikely to yield any form of substantial funding, the best that can be hoped for is a 'weight loss' off the wages bill!

Although the news outlets are full of this club buying that player etc, the fact is very little real business has been concluded as yet, there has been the usual 'frenzied' speculation, but most clubs have kept their powder dry until the Euro's are completed.

The positives of delaying deals far outweigh the negatives, in that although prices may go up if a player performs well, the prices go down if they don't. If the history of international football tells us anything, it is that a player can shine brightly at a tournament, but then fail to replicate that high domestically, Hammers' Andriy Yarmolenko being a classic example, stunning for the Ukraine, a cart horse for West Ham!

Even the most optimistic of Hammers fans will know it is unlikely the club will reach the same points tally next season as it did during the season just completed, other teams will 'bounce back', meaning mid table is probably the best that can be hoped for, although of course that is far more favourable than the 'traditional' relegation scrap fans have become used to on a depressingly regular basis.

Next season will be one of consolidation, at least another 12 months of pain will have to be experienced before David Moyes can finally throw of the shackles of the 'Pellegreedy' era, only then will the manager be able to move forward without being hampered by an insanely high wages bill.

Hammers will remain one of the highest wage payers, but at least the wages bill will make some kind of sense. Losing Yarmolenko's £115,000 per week and Anderson's £85,000 per week trims an eye watering £10 Million per year off the wages bill.

So while fans might get irritable at the club's apparent lack of activity, they should be mindful of 'buying for print' and concentrate far more on buying for the future, by that we mean the next few years, not the next few months. It is time West Ham stepped out of the shadows and fulfils it's destiny to become the 'big club' it should always have been given it's massive fan base.

To successfully move forward the club needs to be more pragmatic and efficient, more importantly the club MUST learn from it's past mistakes, if it doesn't, the same circle of 'nearly' will occur, and keep doing so until the harsh lessons learned are acted on. - Ed