Activity this January?

So the first half of the season is quickly approaching its climax, which means that the next transfer window will soon be open. West Ham are sitting 11^th in the table and have had a great start back in the Premier League but what do they need to improve on in the January transfer window.

Goalkeepers:

West Ham have only one senior keeper in the squad and that is Jussi Jaaskelainen who is doing a great job. The team could probably do with another good keeper to keep him on his toes. Rumours of Paul Robinson coming to West Ham could be a good thing.

Defence:

West Ham have a good squad defence, but some new full backs would be needed for the team to push forward. They could do with getting at least one top right back or left back. Guy Demel, Joey O’Brien and George McCartney are good players in the squad but at times they can all be a bit unreliable. In James Tomkins, Winston Reid and James Collins they have three good centre backs and they can all play well together.

Midfield:

The midfield is very strong and has a good depth. They have a strong centre with Mark Noble, Mohamed Diame and Kevin Nolan. The squad also includes Gary O’Neil, Alou Diarra, Matt Jarvis, Matty Taylor, Ricardo Vaz Te and Modibo Maiga can play there as well.

 

It will be interesting to see what happens with Diame in January. After his injury on Sunday and the fears that he would be out for three months its great to see that he could be back playing before the end of the year but what does this mean for his release clause in his contract. He has been attracting a lot of interest of late and clubs would be able to get him on the cheap with his buy out clause at only £3.5m. I’m sure all West Ham fans will be hoping that he will at stay until at least the Summer. If they do end up selling him, they will need to get a replacement who will do the same sort of job that he does. I don’t feel Noble or especially Nolan could do that role. Allardyce seems to like to play Tomkins in midfield but he is no replacement for Diame and he should be one of the two main centre backs.

Strikers:

West Ham don’t have an out and out goal scorer in their squad after selling Nicky Maynard and Sam Baldock in the summer. They did bring in Andy Carroll who has played really well since joining the club but has so far only scored one goal this season. The other main striker is Carlton Cole who once again is also not a natural goalscorer and only got his first goal on Saturday against Chelsea.

An out of favour Darren Bent at Aston Villa could be a perfect signing. He might not provide much else around the pitch but if you give him some good service he will always score you goals. Out of the twenty goals the team have scored in the league so far this season the strikers have scored only six and that is only if you include Maiga and Vaz Te but they have played the majority of their football from midfield this season.

Transfer Outgoings:

I don’t think West Ham can risk selling anybody at the club just yet. They have been hit with quite a few injuries of late and they will want to keep the squad at its best just to concrete their survival in the league. If they do sell Sam Allardyce will have to make sure he brings in players of better quality to replace them.