West Ham United were not exactly active in the transfer window.
The Irons may have sold Grady Diangana to West Bromwich Albion but they were unable to replace him, bringing in just two permanent signings.
One of those, Tomas Soucek, was on loan at the club last season, while the other, Vladimir Coufal, is a team-mate of the former at international level; both play for the Czech Republic.
There were a number of departures, along with Diangana, as Albian Ajeti, Jordan Hugill, Josh Cullen, Roberto, Felipe Anderson, Pablo Zabaleta, Carlos Sanchez, and Jack Wilshere all left the club, either on permanent transfers, loans, or free transfers.
It has freed up a significant amount of wages, and the London Evening Standard now reports that they are still hoping to sign two players in the domestic transfer window.
The Hammers have another week to sign players from lower-league clubs and it appears the Irons have identified at least two acquisitions from the Championship or below.
The club’s owners, David Sullivan and David Gold, made a promise after Diangana left that the entirety of the £18m fee would be spent on the team. Coufal cost £5.4m.
The report claims that both Said Benrahma, of Brentford, and Bournemouth’s Josh King, are potential targets, while Craig Dawson, the Watford defender, is also said to be a potential signing.
GIVEMESPORT’S Harry Sherlock says…
West Ham really do need to do something.
They have not properly strengthened the squad and some could argue they have actively weakened it.
David Moyes’ men have been in excellent form recently, beating Leicester City and Wolves by an aggregate scoreline of 7-0, but away from their starting XI, there really isn’t all that much depth at the club.
Bringing in reinforcements should be a priority but the targets mentioned by the Standard are rather bizarre given the club’s desperate need of a defender.
Moyes has claimed he is desperate to sign a centre-back and various moves throughout the summer failed to bear any fruit.
Now is the time to finally get one over the line, and then maybe eye reinforcements further up the pitch.
That has to be the shopping list; buying the latter and not the former would be nothing short of negligence.