This week, a lot of column inches have been generated, by the media, relating to just how much cash the Hammers will splash out in this summer transfer window.
With a new manager in charge, Manuel Pellegrini, speculation is rife that the Chilean will be offered more cash to spend, in one transfer window, than any previous manager of the club.
The BBC, discussing the situation carries some quotes from our co-owner, David Gold, which read as thus:
“We will probably spend more money in this window than we’ve spent in any window in the past.”
The statistics show that on average, the club has spent between £35-£45 million, on permanent signings, in each of the last three summer transfer windows.
But, this summer is different, the realisation has hit home that a major overhaul of the team is required with the inference given in the Telegraph, that Pellegrini wants to bring in as many as 7 new signings this summer, a huge amount for a club of our stature.
If Gold and Sullivan were to stick to the previously mentioned average figure, the Hammers would be looking at, a max, £45 million divided by 7, or an average of £6 million a player.
But, as we’ve found out to our cost, what you get for £6 million, unless you uncover a diamond, won’t make that much of a difference.
Therefore, we can only surmise that Gold and Sullivan have accepted the seriousness of the situation and have agreed to invest, possibly, double what the club would normally spend in the transfer window.
However, another spanner in the works is that since the transfer of Neymar, from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain, for a world record fee, the transfer market has become artificially inflated, fees, for an average player, have shot up.
In what is clearly a double-edged sword, you could suggest that a record amount of cash spend for this summer has been necessitated by the aforementioned inflated market and the realisation that the squad we have just isn’t up to scratch.
It should be an interesting summer.
