ExWHUemployee: ‘We haven’t achieved what we could have had we invested in January’

This will be a massive summer for more reasons than one at the club. Not only do we face the potential prospects of having a new manager in charge and all that this will bring, but we need to have a big summer of recruitment regardless of who the manager is.

We have the second oldest squad in the league and one that is really in need of an injection of pace and freshness, as well as the required number of home grown players to meet the quota. Of course the players that we bring in will depend on who leaves the club and it is almost certain at least one or two home grown players will.

It is fair to say that Kalvin Phillips’s loan spell has been nothing short of a costly disaster, even though i have to confess, I thought it was a good move at the time. He will not be a West Ham player next year so that is one homegrown spot lost.

Could his natural replacement already be our player though? Flynn Downes has had a very successful loan spell at Southampton and is a massive West Ham fan. It makes perfect sense to me to give him Phillips’s squad place and recruit for other positions.

There is a strong chance we will also lose Aaron Cresswell after 10 years at the club. We do have Olivier Scarles in the academy who could fill the role, but I think with Emerson also about to enter his 30s, a new left back would be a good addition.

Leif Davis, ironically of Ipswich, where we got Cresswell, is said to be on the radar and he appears to tick all the boxes. We have been massively let down by our defence this year and it is essential we sign at least two centre backs.

I would entertain offers for Aguerd if we could recoup our money for him and I think sadly it might be time to say goodbye to Ogbonna as well. This leaves us with Zouma whose knees surely can’t last much longer and then inconsistent Mavropanos.

I think it is important we get two centre backs in that have experience of the league and have proven they can play at this level. The first I would look to sign, and I believe he is available on a free, is Tosin Adarabioyo of Fulham.

He has been one of their better players for a number of years now and has attracted attention from some big clubs. The signing of him on an free transfer would be a great bit of business. To go alongside him, I would like us to try and make a move for Max Killman of Wolves.

He is their captain and is a great leader. His addition could be exactly what we need to strengthen the back line. I think we could also do with an explosive left winger. Someone who has pace and can create things out of nothing. I would take a gamble on a young player from abroad here as well as giving George Earthy plenty of time to make his mark too.

I also believe it is crucial we buy at least one established forward. Whilst I think Antonio can still do a job for us, we cannot rely on him to remain fit for an entire season. Again an established forward in the league like Solanke of Bournemouth or Toney of Brentford would be ideal although whether we could persuade them to join is a different question.

Someone in that model though would be perfect. I have heard that we are keen on the Greek forward Fotios Ioannidis and perhaps he could be the gamble that turns out to be exactly what we need. Another major part of our summer recruitment will come down to whether we keep hold of our Brazilian Lucas Paqueta.

Manchester City were very heavily linked to him last summer and had the gambling allegations not happened, I think he would be a city player now. It is thought that they are still keen on him and I would personally take the £85m his release clause is said to be, and look to buy a couple of exciting replacements.

I love Lucas but I feel £85m would represent good value for us. Tim Steidten will play a key role in not only working with the manager but bringing in players too. This will be the summer to see if he is worth the money we have invested in him.

You can’t help but think had we invested more in January other than Phillips, this season would have had better outcomes. As I write this after the Liverpool game, we are now out of the Europa league and also looking unlikely to make European qualification in the league.

I think the pivotal moment was not investing in January. We then struggled, when we had injuries, to get maximum points from the likes of Sheffield United away, Burnley at home and games like Brighton and Villa at home when both teams were there for the taking but we just didn’t have the options to break them down. I expect we will finish between eighth and 11th in the league and when you consider we have had two quarter finals of cups it’s not been a terrible season.

It does feel, however, that it is one where we haven’t achieved what we could have had we invested in January when we were in a healthy position in the league and Europe. This is often the story of how our seasons have gone recently.

One thing for certain is that it will be a busy summer and the best place to stay on the pulse of all the news is at our Patreon on patreon.com/thewesthamway