Forum | General Discussion

For the past month, West Ham United have tried every trick in the book in an attempt to sign a goalkeeper for the upcoming season. After a few names had been ruled out, it seemed to have settled down to the coaching staff’s choice of Mads Hermansen and Potter and Macaulay’s choice of Zion Suzuki…

That was all we thought! West Ham yesterday sent an offer worth up to €8m to Botafogo for Brazilian goalkeeper John Victor.

The goalkeeper has impressed and also attracted other clubs such as Manchester United and Galatasaray. However, despite his good performances in the league and the Club World Cup, it is understood that he was neither the preference of Potter nor the staff, but it was David Sullivan who believed the goalie was more ‘value for money’ in comparison to the other targets.

The €8m bid has now been rejected by Botafogo, and it’s unknown whether the Hammers will return with another bid, but a goalkeeper will be signed before the start of the season; it’s just a question of who?

Will it be option: (A) The goalkeeper coaches’ target, Hermansen, (B) Graham Potter's ‘dream’ target in Zion Suzuki, (C) Sulky Sull’s low bid.

The Hammers set off on Wednesday night through to Thursday morning for their second Premier League summer series game against David Moyes' Everton side.

The game not only started with a very different line-up, but we started the fixture with the same patterns of defensive errors as in the 17th minute, Everton made a mockery of Casey and Kilman, as Everton's team glided through our defence, clear as day, the ball in the back of the net with a easy finish for Gueye who made it 1-0 to Everton.

However, after a few passages of play, a defensive error decided to go in our favour when Everton's Goalkeeper, Mark Travers, punched the ball onto his own head and slipped in Lucas Paqueta who had to shield off the defender to tap it in to an open net, a simple finish from Paqman, but they all count.

Halftime super subs formed the team to look more realistic as to what we could expect, with a struggling Casey coming off the field, as well as Potts, who impressed again but was on a yellow card, so was taken off during the break for Guido.

Niclas Fullkrug picked up the ball and blazed it into the bottom right corner across the goal, making it 2-1 to us, a classy finish for the German, who, coming into next season needs some confidence to bring into the 2025/26 season.

The remainder of the game was closed out, and the final score would end up being 2-1 to us. A few chances closed out the game, such as AWB fooling the entire crowd that he'd scored, but had just in fact hit the side netting and that was that.

Another fixture which demonstrates the need for a Midfielder as well as another Goalkeeper, with the GK having to be the primary option at hand, considering Fodderingham's run out today wasn't ideal to say the least, which the goal will tell you, but he nor Areola can be our starting choices next season, business seriously needs to get a move on.

Yesterday's news essentially confirmed our new 'Hokey Cokey' strategy of one out and one in, but we're not doing it with players, we're doing it with targets!

Sully wasn't afraid to get on the phone yesterday and start spilling out all of the news on targets, bids and who we aren't and are interested in... to put it in his exact words: "West Ham have made an approach, but there are more than 10 clubs in for him. Mendez is his agent and some big European clubs are interested. He’ll leave Southampton, but I’m not too sure it will be to the Premier League.”

Isn't that just inspiring to hear... I guess we'll be moving on to the other targets, such as maybe Ardon Jashari?

As much as all the news is negative, we will be anticipating a lot of movement coming in the next few days, considering that it will be August 1st, where all of the PSR rules reset for the year, which will allow the Hammers to do more business at a more comfortable rate than what we've been dealing with.

Perhaps it is overthought hope, but seeing as PSR has been an 'issue' for us this transfer window, as of August the 1st, that is no longer an immediate issue, so the 'Hokey Cokey' strategy may in fact turn from targets to players but wouldn't hold your breath

Time will tell, but all eyes are now on the West Ham vs Everton game, which is tonight at 23:30...

If it wasn’t already apparent to fellow West Ham fans it would’ve been very apparent that throughout the Manchester United game, Alphonso Areola simply doesn’t suit Graham Potters playing style, and as well as that, he’s lost a yard or two with his confidence.

Three primary goalkeeper replacements have been named throughout the window. Zion Suzuki at the forefront, but his price being deemed too expensive, Hermansen the next option but Newcastle are chasing after him after loosing out on Trafford and now introducing Michael Cooper for Sheffield United… that’ll be fun business to do!

The Englishman is valued at £15,000,000 but is it worth to ‘Cop Cooper?’ If Potter decides to approve this it won’t be a tough deal as I’m sure you’ve guessed… Cooper is a Salthouse client.

Whilst Cooper did also impress last season and actually has decent stats face value, it is underwhelming to hear that the Hammers transfer plan is primarily based around clients or free agents.

But if Graham Potter and the fans are being honest, Areola has been preforming to such a poor level it almost seems as if a lot of people that would replace him would end up being better than the Frenchman simply due to the lack of confidence and lack of ability he’s shown as of late.

The game against Manchester United, albeit a pre-season friendly, demonstrated school boy errors which was persistently shown throughout last season.

Potter likes Zion, the coaching staff like Hermansen and Sully likes Cooper… take your pick!