Tim Steidten’s transfer decisions last summer continue to be placed under the scrutiny of 20 / 20 hindsight: The brief has changed from the summer’s pearl diving to ‘hit the ground running’ acquisitions. The only positive outcome will be a lesson learned for the future with regard to buying thirty plus year-old players with dodgy injury records in the case of Fullkrug. At least with Luis Guilherme, some, or most of the cash should be recouped. Fullkrug will be another matter.
With reports again surfacing regarding the (oh no) interest in Newcastle’s creaking Callum Wilson, I hope the calm head of Graham Potter prevails and deters West Ham’s management from taking yet another backward step with one more crock for the scrap heap after half a dozen ten – minute cameos.
“Necessity is the mother of invention”: West Ham have bags of necessity right now with a full front-line of strikers on the sick list. Graham Potter had a few days to get his feet under the desk and assess the squad after joining, plus however much time preparation waiting for the axe to fall on Lopetegui. And in that time he would seem to have come to the same conclusion as his predecessor- that Luis Guilherme is not a first team footballer.
The fact that the ‘luxury’ twenty million plus teenager sat idly on the bench during West Ham’s epic victory against Fulham speaks volumes. The Irons started without a recognised striker and even when Kudus was withdrawn and replaced with Ings, Potter chose to live his teen speedster sitting watching.
If I was Guilherme right now I’d be agitating for a move away. The fact that the Times ran the story yesterday that a Saudi team are planning to buy him probably comes as a relief to the player and to West Ham’s management as it will being a sorry end to the whole speculative episode. You can fully expect Guilherme to emerge as a wonderful 20 a season goal scorer in five years time – that is the way of things at West Ham.
However, just now, that £15 million (If we are lucky) can better be used elsewhere to help towards acquiring someone who can bang in five plus goals in what remains of this season and go onto greater things in the next few years. The luxury of ‘potential’ – another teen pearl – is not something West Ham can afford just now. With no Bowen, Antonio or Fullkrug, ‘potential’ doesn’t put points on the board.
