The folly of operating with just three centre-backs has been exposed as everyone except those recruiting at the club seemed to believe it would. £40 million on Max Kilman largely blew the budget for two players which meant West Ham have been operating one centre-back short since Nayef Aguerd was dispatched on loan by Lopetegui late in the summer window.
Mavropanos’ silly second yellow card against Crystal Palace now gives the head coach a big headache. The Greek defender now faces a one game suspension for next Sunday’s away game at Aston Villa: Max Kilman is, with colleague Todibo’s layoff, therefore the only available first- team central defender.
The outlook for Kilman’s injured team mate Jean-Clair Todibo is not good either. In the article from the standard.co.uk headed “West Ham: Graham Potter leaves door open to new signing amid centre-back shortage”, the head coach explained:
“JC [Todibo] is going to be a while before he comes back, so there’s no immediate solution there. It’s a calf strain and lower-limb issue. He’s going to be a bit of time yet. We have to look for what we have.”
Todibo – lengthy layoff?
Which means stand-in centre back Edson Alvarez will be called upon, further weakening an already brittle midfield – or 20-year old centre back Kaelan Casey will be the next youngster drafted in to the match day eleven as well as the senior training squad where he has been working in preparation for just such an eventuality.
West Ham already turned away from the ‘free transfer’ market in August when they considered but chose against bringing in a fourth centre back – Joel Matip or John Egan were options – on a ‘Bosman’ to give them cover. That doesn’t look such a good choice now.
Is the budget there to bring in a striker and a centre back? We all fear we know the answer to that. Somebody tell the new head coach the bad news.
