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Feed Me Chicken 12:47 Sun Nov 20
The Summer Signings

Quite scary how literally all of them have failed so far, will let Ayew off as he had a big injury!

Stevethehammer 1:45 Sun Nov 20
Re: The Summer Signings

The blame lies solely at the door of Sullivan,
For how long did we fuck about trying to get Bacca.
I will never ever understand how we let someone like Benteke go to palace without even attempting to bring him in.
Scores goals in this league but yet we rummage around in the bargain bin and pull out Calleri and Zaza and the most criminal act was relying on Carroll.
We were promised marquee after marquee signing,
The new stadium bringing in new fortunes and players literally begging to.play for us. Load of old pony from Sullivan as per usual and he tried to do it on the cheap and it is biting him right on the arse.
Ayew at 20 million may well work out and I for one was happy to see him here but still wanted more from Sullivan and he did not deliver. AGAIN!!

jack flash 2:20 Sun Nov 20
Re: The Summer Signings

Fernandes & Fletcher might be good investments for the future but neither look quite ready to hold a 1st team place

Haven't been particularly impressed with Ayew yet but then he hasn't had much of a chance yet. Looks like we paid well over the odds for him

The rest have been dross, bargain basement & should be nowhere near the bench, never mind the 1st team. Zaza, Nordtveit, Tore being the most disappointing

Calleri looks disinterested which isn't too surprising since he didn't want to come here in the 1st place, if the rumours are to be believed

Abeola was a last minute panic effort & on yesterdays showing apparently, not as good an option as Antonio at RB

We needed a RB, a decent striker & a midfield enforcer who could walk straight into the starting 11.

We got none of those but we did manage to sell one of our best home grown talents, underprice, who could play at CH or RB

Brilliant!

Alex V 2:22 Sun Nov 20
Re: The Summer Signings

Musuaku, Fletcher and Fernandes are looking like good additions. So I wouldn't say all have failed. The two big signings Ayew and Zaza are looking very sketchy so far though, no question, and if you go big you have to get it right!

bertie 2:24 Sun Nov 20
Re: The Summer Signings

The thing is benteke was getting so heavily slated at the back end of last season if he had been out marque signing people would have lost their minds. He's crap, too similar to Carroll etc.
Hindsight makes him look a far more attractive signing than he did in August.

Poplar Iron 2:38 Sun Nov 20
Re: The Summer Signings

The only way I can look at this...

Not one of the summers signings would make it into the starting 11 with everyone fit...pretty much says it all, we signed a load of squad players, some of which I even struggle to class as footballers :-(

Hermit Road 2:45 Sun Nov 20
Re: The Summer Signings

We did it on the cheap. Now we are reaping what we've sown

Sven Roeder 2:46 Sun Nov 20
Re: The Summer Signings

The Bacca & Lacazette negotiations could have been done in the same afternoon.
WHU :We are prepared to pay the necessary fee to sign you, do you want to join West Ham?
Baccazette: No
WHU : See you later. Next!

The suspicion is that signings became more attractive because they were free or loans. Ayew was a last minute panic splurge.
The only player of the right profile signed for a sensible fee was Fernandes. And he looks the only success.
Go figure

Alex V 2:49 Sun Nov 20
Re: The Summer Signings

Sven Roeder 2:46 Sun Nov 20

I think that's a bit unfair - clearly both Bacca and Lacazette gave some version of a 'maybe' to that question. So then what do you do, given they are some of the only targets available who might be predicted to improve us?

Alex V 2:50 Sun Nov 20
Re: The Summer Signings

>>> We did it on the cheap.

Again I have to dispute that. We spent a lot of money, more than most of the league. Ayew was £20m - that is quite definitely not cheap.

Full Claret Jacket 2:55 Sun Nov 20
Re: The Summer Signings

We signed players in positions we didn't need. Wingers galore in Ayew, Feghouli and Tore and no proper right back as Bilic was adamant he would make Antonio one. The striker mess is well documented. Piss off the best striker, find out nobody is interested in West Ham without ridiculous wages and pick up loans to plug the squad.
The Ayew signing was clearly a panic signing after everything else was falling through. I don't see where he plays in our system. A total waste of money which could have been used where we needed it.
The board keeps getting the blame for poor team management decisions. I wouldn't let Bilic near the chequebook in Jan. The bloke is away with the fairies.

Hermit Road 2:58 Sun Nov 20
Re: The Summer Signings

£20 million is clearly a lot of money, but there's the context. If what you require is a £30 million striker to improve the team, then spending £20 million is not enough. That being said, he's one player, our total spend amounted to an average of £3 million per new player. That is on the cheap, particularly in this day and age.

Sven Roeder 2:58 Sun Nov 20
Re: The Summer Signings

As I recall Bacca said he would only leave for Champions league football and Lacazette something similar.
You'd assume most clubs have an ongoing list of 10 or so of these players they are monitoring and move down the list.
We didn't seem to want to accept no as an answer and let it drag on far too long.

On a side note I heard someone talking about Southampton.
As soon as they were promoted they expected Lallana to become a target so were scouting Tadic for over two years. Along with several other possibles

paulon 2:59 Sun Nov 20
Re: The Summer Signings

Sullivan couldn't keep his mouth shut last season and during the summer when the PR/bullshit machine was in full swing about big signings etc.

Shame he seems to have lost his voice this season, would have been interested to hear his OPINION on the complete fucking shambles they have made of it.

Hermit Road 3:01 Sun Nov 20
Re: The Summer Signings

The comparison with Southampton is a good one and makes our approach look totally amateurish. It constantly has the feel of an ad hoc, panicked strewn method. We had one good window last summer that is increasingly resembling a lone swallow.

Alex V 3:05 Sun Nov 20
Re: The Summer Signings

Sven Roeder 2:58 Sun Nov 20

I think in every transfer window clubs have to decide when to give up on the primary targets and take the less desirable options. Does that mean we should have bought Zaza for full price before the euros just to get it done? I doubt anyone would be too happy about that outcome right now.

On the scouting and prep I totally agree - clearly we are way, way behind the better run clubs.

, 3:09 Sun Nov 20
Re: The Summer Signings

paulon, Sullivan is keeping his counsel about certain things right now and I for one am pleased for his silence.

However as soon as he makes public a ringing endorsement of Bilic we will all know that the managers time is up.

Worrying about summer signings masks the fact that we have, minus Tomkins, the same players who performed so well last year. They have not become bad players overnight but our bench has not really improved from last season it seems. Oh and regards Tomkins, if still with us, I wonder if he had been put on instead of Nordveit we'd have lost yesterday?

Sven Roeder 3:19 Sun Nov 20
Re: The Summer Signings

Said with a bit of hindsight that we should have looked at £10m to £20m strikers rather than imagining we were in the £40m buying market.
Zaza .... I watched him play for Italy v ROI & thought he was totally unsuited. I'd be fascinated to hear someone show what their scouting involved.
In an ideal world as I said we would have several players in every position we were monitoring constantly.

Alex V 3:19 Sun Nov 20
Re: The Summer Signings

>>> We had one good window last summer that is increasingly resembling a lone swallow.

I think the year before, barring Valencia, was also a big success. Kouyate, Cresswell, Sakho. I think the problem is that any approach that relies on a bunch of signings from around the world hitting the ground running is a gamble. Some years it will come off, some it won't.

ChesterRd 3:28 Sun Nov 20
Re: The Summer Signings

We did not spend a lot of money at all. I can only assume people are including the fees of these loan players if they were bought? Obviously none of them will be signed permanently as they are grade A shit.

Ayew was bought on a very generous installment plan apparently. We bought Lanzini but that was a player from last season so not improving the team. Other fees paid around the £5m mark are more aligned with what Championship clubs pay.

We lost high wage earners in Song, Jenkinson and Moses. Do people think shit like Nordtveit is getting the same money as Song was on?

We sold Tomkins for £10m so would have got some of that money in.

The owners received money up front and in full for 52k season tickets, corporate, cashing in on of farewell Boleyn hello OS merchandise.

Sale of the Boleyn ground anyone?

Better PL placing and televised game income than would have been budgeted for. Biggest Sky TV money in history anyone?

Bilic's hand is obviously on signings like Tore but the rest of them smack of Sullivan and his spiv agents looking for a cheap deal or "value for money" as they euphemistically claim.

How many PL manager would have given a list of targets to their chairman that is basically a list of loans, cheap buys and frees? Do people actually think Bilic did that and the dross signed was down to him?

Full Claret Jacket 3:42 Sun Nov 20
Re: The Summer Signings

Why do you think Bilic didn't pick these players? Of course there is some scouting involved but I don't believe he has no say. Yes we have spent a fortune on player fees and new contracts. We spent far more than comparable clubs.

Top players will not come to us. We need young emerging players looking to use us as a stepping stone to a bigger club or out of sorts players trying to get their career back on track. That is unfortunately where we are at.

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