Army of Age - Hammers Head For Leaders
An eye for age? The Hammers certainly like the concept of signing a cheaper central defender this summer, and as time has passed, it has become blatantly obvious what the Hammers plan is for the remainder of the transfer window.
In search of a central defender to reinforce the backline, the Hammers have officially shortlisted Axel Disasi, Fabian Schar, Tyrone Mings and Victor Lindelof.
These are the domestic names of interest as the Hammers still remain keen on other international targets elsewhere, such as Charlie Cresswell, but it appears to be that every player the club attempts to move for is either too expensive or not to Nuno’s liking, which, in translation, indicates that the telephone lines are down between Nuno and the board or perhaps there’s a small aspect of miscommunication… wonder if it’ll be ironed out.
All of the listed names appear as a waiting list for the Saudi League, not another Premier League club! But the truth is West Ham’s options at the moment are dire, they’re nothing short of liabilities, and Nuno has inadvertently still been desperate to sign one, hence his comments after every match since the transfer window has opened, claiming that “we need to rebalance the squad”.
Rebalancing for purpose, or for the sake of making the fans happy, is the question to be answered at the moment. It has been confirmed that Nuno is delaying the process of signing a centre-back, but that is only because he isn’t happy with the options that have been provided towards him by the club’s chief scout and target provider, Agent DS.
With the exclusion of Charlie Cresswell, for whom Toulouse have rejected a €20,000,000 bid by German side Wolfsburg, the remaining targets are likely to cost around the £5,000,000 to £10,000,000 mark. A cheap price for a defender and little to no enthusiasm to fork out more funds, as it will break the imaginary money border that has been set.
Leadership is one factor, but being old, frail, or simply not good enough won’t provide the Hammers any benefit. It’s a huge risk with an old reward, sometimes old is gold, but that’s only in rare cases. - LN






