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West Ham landed their first signing under new manager Manuel Pellegrini with Ryan Fredericks having agreed to join on a free transfer, the right back earned promotion to the Premier League with Fulham last season but has signed a four year deal having turned down a contract extension in January when the club refused to meet his demands of becoming the highest paid player at Craven Cottage. For David Sullivan getting Fredericks on a free transfer represents a bit of a coup, in fact there are many that are saying the £25 Million transfer fee saved on the deal is almost exactly the same amount of money that the club has commited to paying Pellegrini in wages for the duration of his three year management contract.

25 year old Fredericks will officially join the club on July the 1st and told the whufc.com website: "It’s amazing for this deal to finally happen. I know we’ve been speaking about it for a while and trying to get things in place and finally, we’ve got it over the line. I’m just buzzing to be here. West Ham United is one of the biggest clubs in the Premier League. Everyone knows the history of West Ham and there’s a lot of factors that brought me to the club. Obviously, it’s an exciting time for West Ham. The club have just brought in a new manager in Manuel Pellegrini and everyone knows his CV and what he has done in England before and in other leagues as well. I’m sure I can learn a lot from him. It just felt like, for the next step of my career, I would be best suited coming here."

Pellegrini is additionally quoted as saying “I am very pleased to welcome Ryan to West Ham United as our first signing this summer. He joins having had a successful season with Fulham and is a player who will bring great qualities to our squad. He has good experience, with more than 150 senior appearances already but, at 25, he is still a young player with his best years ahead of him. Ryan has good character, is hungry to succeed, and has shown me that he has great desire to be a West Ham United player. I look forward to working with him.”

The fact that the first major signing of the Pellegrini era is a free transfer should probably get the 64 year old Chilean's suspicions aroused, in his homeland he has been quoted as saying "The challenge with West Ham is spectacular. Now I will force the owners to form a competitive team because they are rich but careful with money. We are trying to get the owner to loosen up to make an important investment and thus bring the players we need. The idea is to sign a great figure. If we manage to get a big figure it is very important for the status of the club because that will help convince other players."
One player Pellegrini has ruled out a move for is his compatriot, Manchester City goalkeeper Claudio Brav, he said: "Signing Bravo for West Ham is not viable either. It is not in West Ham's salary possibilities."

Welcome to West Ham Mr Pelligrini, where the word free is sacred! - Ed

Having splashed out just over £10 Million of the transfer money received from the sale of Dimitri Payet on buying Scottish International Robert Snodgrass from Hull City, West Ham will be looking to recoup as much money as possible for the player who was sent out on loan to Aston Villa last season. Villa's failure to make the promised land that is the Premier League by being beaten in the play off final by Fulham means that they are no longer able to afford players like Snodgrass even on loan due to Financial Fair Play rules as they are now approaching their final year of parachute payments.

While Aston Villa are left to deal with the disappointment of another year in the Championship, newly promoted Cardiff City under the management of 'old foe' Neil Warnock who has worked with Snodgrass before, seem to be showing an interest in the 30 year old winger/forward who arrived at the London Stadium in the 'January Sales' and was never able to recreate the form that had made him Hull's best player and captain, he endured a miserable time with the club while Slaven Bilic was manager and was farmed out on loan for the next season, but not before there was the venting of a lot of bad blood both ways on behalf of the Hammers' hierarchy and the player himself, ultimately ending in a situation where a return to West Ham United was all but impossible.

Some will say Snodgrass was never given a fair crack of the whip and that he was played out of position by Slaven Billic, others would say he looked at least a yard of the pace and that the move from the small goldfish pond that was Hull City to the Big Ocean that is West Ham was just too much for him to cope with, it is believed he also found living away from his young family very difficult, which beggars the question why move in the first place? It couldn't have been for the money from Snodgrass' point of view, it was probably more a question of Hull grabbing what they could for one of their few assets while they were still able to do so!

Good luck Robert, you and Neil deserve each other. - Ed

The dark shadow that descended over the London Stadium last year currently seems to be a thing of the past, with record season ticket sales, a 'proper' manager and the prospect of exciting talents arriving in E20.

Of course with all the talk of new arrivals there will also be talk of who will be leaving and for how much, The Sun and Sky Sports (one of the same!) have embarked on a relentless 'Arnie to Mourinho' campaign, however the devil is always in the detail and the details emerging are conflicting to say the least. The Murdoch media machine has attempted to imply that Arnoutovic would 'love' to sign for Mourinho because of the time they spent together at Inter Milan, only thing is Marko Arnautović endured a torrid time while the Manchester United manager was in charge, Mourinho described Arnautović as a 'big child' and too inconsistant and that he would never make the grade, we will have more on this topic on Monday.

A £17 Million move for Paris Saint Germain playmaker Javier Pastore is the latest rumour to emerge, with PSG apparently having to balance their books due to financial fare play rules, they have completely ignored FFP in the past and it is intruiging that they have suddenly begun to comply. Whatever the reason for Pastore's availability the fact remains he is a class act and at 28 years old is at his peak, the only fly in the ointment being his injury record last season, he would represent a significant investment and West Ham know only too well the price of signing injury prone players! The recent flurry of transfer activity has seen Hammers' chances of reaching the Europa Cup become a real possibility which is reflected by the changing of the odds from potential relegation candidates to stylish Euro giants, promo betfred have all the latest odds.

Manuel Pellegrini has a penchant for playing a version of 4-2-2-2 setting his teams up to 'overwhelm' the opposition with fast wing play feeding two strikers, one of which is usually deployed in the 'hole'. If Pastore was signed he could form a devastating partnership in midield with Manuel Lanzini, the combination would then be able to feed Arnoutovic and probably Javier Hernandez which in turn would tick the 'little un big un' requirement for playing two 'up top'. Unfortunately the impending arrival of Pastore means the chances of retaining Jaoa Mario for another season look very slender, which is a real pity, he took to the Premier League really well and as such would not be a risk as he s not an unknown quantity. Perhaps Inter might allow him to return on loan for another season, one would imaging it is the only way he will reurn to the London Stadium as his purchase price would be too rich for West Ham given how little money there is available to spend.

So where does all this leave Andy Carroll, Jordan Hugill, Robert Snodgrass, Sam Byram and probably Winston Reid? Probably a lot closer to the exit door! - Ed