West Ham United insider @ExWHUemployee has been sharing some behind-the-scenes details concerning the east London club’s supposed transfer budget for the current summer window.
This comes after Ex co-hosted a recent episode of The West Ham Way Podcast, where he spoke about a variety of subjects concerning the Hammers.
It was recently reported that the Hammers are in financial trouble – so much so, that owners David Gold and David Sullivan were looking to sell a large chunk of their shares, and Ex has claimed that if those reports are true, David Moyes may have been misled over the size of the club’s transfer budget for the summer.
On the subject of the club’s apparent transfer budget for this summer window, Ex had this to say on the matter.
He said: “I’m not David Gold, I’m not David Sullivan, I don’t know how much they’ve got, but at the start, when the season finished, I was told that [David] Moyes has been told – and this came through Moyes, so it came from sources connected to Moyes, not sources connected to the chairmen – he would have about £50-ish million to spend on players, and he would obviously get whatever sales he makes put into that as well.
“Now, whether that was just said to Moyes to get him to sign a contract or not, I don’t know, but if that’s the case, he could technically resign because he’d been lied to as such, or it is the case now, even then, I don’t think £50 million is enough, not when we’ve got to be going through a European campaign.”
In terms of incoming transfers so far in this summer window, the only player to permanently sign to the Hammers is Craig Dawson, which was confirmed back in April after the player originally joined Moyes’s side on an initial loan deal from Watford.
On the other side of things, West Ham let go of Fabian Balbuena, who has since joined Russian club Dynamo Moscow on a free transfer.
The club also managed to sell winger Felipe Anderson to Italian club Lazio for a reported fee of £2.7 million, according to Transfermarkt.
TIF Thoughts on Ex’s comments on the apparent transfer budget at West Ham for the summer…
Taking into account how Ex suggested that Moyes was told that the budget for transfers this summer would be around the £50 million mark and the fact that the club has yet to spend any of it, this suggests to us that either the budget is not as plentiful as Moyes was apparently told or that the club are being particularly careful and taking their time with whoever they may want to spend money on.
How many players do you think West Ham need to sign this summer?
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In our view, given how West Ham will have to tackle the Premier League and the Europa League next season after securing qualification for the latter at the end of the previous campaign, we feel that the club should be looking at bringing in some new players this summer, specifically another striker alongside Michail Antonio and perhaps strengthen their depth in midfield looking at their current squad.