As I sit to write this, before the transfer window closes, it is easy to lament another disappointing summer. Another full of promise that has only delivered us a familiar frustration. With the change at the top of the club, many of us were hopeful that a new, positive, proactive recruitment strategy would follow suit. But the trappings of Sullivan-style transfers have only continued to rear their ugly heads. This got me thinking about what clubs that consistently get transfers right are doing differently, what ‘successful transfer windows’ actually look like and why West Ham keep seeming to get it wrong.
The Illusion of “Winning the Window”
Rewinding to our last two seasons, many were claiming that we had ‘won the window’ and were particularly impressed with the arrival of young, high-potential and well sought-after talents such as Mateus Fernandes, Jean-Clair Todibo, El Hadji Malick Diouf and Crysencio Summerville and the way they seemed to reflect the club’s ambition and pulling power. Now, with the majority of those players gone, we must wonder whether or not those transfers have been a ‘success’ for the club. West Ham are undoubtedly a weaker side as a result of their exits but I believe it to be symptomatic of something bigger.
Contrast with Sustainable Models: Brentford and Brighton
As we look at teams that are famously praised for their transfer strategies such as Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth – maybe we would be in a better position if our name started with a B – we must wonder how, even though they are routinely picked apart and gutted of their best talents, they continue to find ways to compete at the same, or even a higher, level. Brentford lost essentially their entire front line and Bournemouth their entire back line, yet they have continued their upwards trajectory. So, why can those teams sell their best players and improve while West Ham can’t?
Lack of Long-Term Succession Planning
One thing that comes to mind is planning. West Ham operate under a random and chaotic transfer policy; with the managerial shifts and ownership tension, there has been no real sense of identity on the pitch. For a long time our transfer approaches have been scattergun, focusing more on who is available and who is cheap rather than who makes a good fit for the club. Any team can get lucky and sign or develop a fantastic player. The best teams proactively plan for what happens after they leave. You could argue that the arrivals of Edson Alvarez and JWP were supposed to be future-proofing for Declan’s departure but those two players do not come close to having the same profile that was needed – especially for a team so dependent on him. The following season JWP was sent out on loan and Carlos Soler and Guido were brought in. None of these players have remotely the same profile or fit any sort of unified strategy and their failure to make a substantial impact only proves this further. This is perhaps also the reason behind our perpetual striker curse; we don’t know which type of striker we need or which system suits them. The problem isn’t that West Ham sell their best players, the problem is that we seem to sell them without knowing what comes next. These departures should be part of the strategy, a prepared for and necessary step in the club’s development – not a surprise that derails the entire club’s trajectory.
Relegation Limbo and Short-Term Compromises
Then came this season, following relegation, one which required swift, efficient and purposeful organisation. It was clear from the second our relegation was confirmed that certain players would be out of the door, yet we have seemed to spend the entire summer in limbo waiting for certain offers to come in for players that have no interest in playing for us. In the teams we have seen successfully bounce back, there has been a ruthless and realistic approach to getting rid of all bad eggs and recruiting smartly for the future. We made significant profits on Summerville and Fernandes and were told there was money to spend on exciting players who could improve the current team and stay with us in the Premier League. This has not been the case at all. We have dithered and lost out on major targets and have seemed largely lethargic to act. Solomon and Piroe have played well in their short time but they are players that are clearly not good enough for Premier League football and whose ages prevent any further sell-on value. If we look at the Brighton model, their success has largely been found through discovering and developing young players and selling them to reinvest in their facilities and new players. While West Ham have had some success with this (Summerville, Fernandes, Kudus) that approach seems to have been completely abandoned. It screams of a lack of trust, a lack of ideas and of desperation. Real talent in recruitment comes from trust in the scouting networks and in the ethos of the system to continually produce talent as a way of incrementally strengthening the infrastructure and the club as a whole. Our recruitment strategy appears to be blindly casting our net and hoping to catch something spectacular. Good teams are able to sell their best players because they are set up to generate new ones. Currently, I fear that West Ham have proven to be incapable of doing this.
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