This transfer window has been an anomaly from the ones that have gone before. The impact of the English superpowers in the window has been lost. This means that there hasn’t been a better time for clubs that are below the top 6. Inside the top 6, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City are the two clubs who come to mind that have spent the biggest money.
Manchester City has been as pro-active as usual. Negrado, Jovetic and Navas being the key signings, not to forget Fernandinho. Tottenham have strengthened with Soldado and Paulinho. Arsenal, Chelsea Manchester United and Everton have hardly increased their squads with the big names. Andre Schuurle being the only major signing in that group. This means that the remaining £180 million give or take, has been spent among the remaining 14 clubs. This has made the window a lucrative one for these clubs. The amount of money available to these clubs has made the window so lucrative. Norwich City have spent well, so have Swansea City, Liverpool and Fulham. Even new boys Cardiff City, backed by their Malaysian history-changing contingent have spent well. However, West Ham United could claim to have been the most productive in terms of their value for money.
If we look at our 5 signings, only two have been fee-paying signings. Those two players both coming from Liverpool. Even though officially the club paid undisclosed fees, we can estimate that they cost £20 million together. Stewart Downing and Andy Carroll have been key signings for West Ham United, but most of all, incredible value for money. Clubs around West Ham have spent big money on unproven players in this league. For example look at Swansea; Wilfried Bony was a clinical and devastating finisher in Holland. However, it is proven that those that come from the Dutch league with a great goal record may take some time to settle. Look at Afonso Alves and Mateja Kezman. Both were big money signings from Holland who failed in England. West Ham on the other hand have signed a striker who we know has a strong record and in good form.
Then you can look at Norwich City. A solid season is expected from the Canaries. Possibly the first time in about 8 years that Norwich City fans can go into a season with hopes of being successful in a top division. However they are another team that has used a high-risk strategy of buying a lot of players who have never played in the league. Or if they have played in this league they have been in relegated sides. Gary Hooper, Ricky van Wolfswinkel and Nathan Redmond will all be influential to them, yet with the sale of Grant Holt they are starting to lose the heart of the spirited team that came from the Championship. The trouble for Norwich could be in creating a new side. In comparison, the thriving heart of West Ham’s promotion squad is still beating and the added quality of Carroll and Downing mixed with the experience of Razvan Rat and Joe Cole.
The point is that if you look at the money we have spent compared to some surrounding sides, the value for money could be incredible. Norwich and Swansea, surely two league rivals for West Ham United this year, may have spent their money wisely, only time will tell. However, Allardyce can be feeling fairly content that he knows what to expect from his squad and especially from his new signings. The cutthroat nature of the window has made it hard for clubs to compete for new men, yet Allardyce has made some shrewd and positive moves in the market.
Not trying to be funny but when you bought Carrol you bought a striker that had just proven himself to be a bit of a donkey.End of story.
I’m just incredulous this article describes Downing and Carroll as a bargain at £20m! Carroll is good after a few games, but never stays fit and Downing is nearly 30 and not exactly class.
West Ham have spent well considering the likes of City and Spurs will obviously have the lion’s share of top players. Carroll and Downing are very much England “B” stars, not up there with any of the players signed by City or Spurs but nevertheless, will no doubt prove to be excellent acquisitions by Big Sam. Can’t help but feel the envy at Tottenham though. I could only dream of West Ham being linked with a player like Willian or Lamela, let alone having Paulinho, Soldado, Capoue or the Belgian lad who’s name escapes me.
What really frightens me is the fact that they actually don’t NEED to sell Bale at all as they are spending remaining transfer budgets from previous seasons and can afford to keep him. Imagine the power, pace and threat of Soldado, Bale, Lamela, Willian, Paulinho, Dembele, the other Belgian lad and Lennon, not to mention the lazy Adebayor or Judas Defoe.
I used to believe we were almost rivals with Spuds but now, even without Bale, they’ve moved into a different ethos altogether, one which we will never reach without a multi-billionaire new owner. Hate to say this and makes me want to throw up but I’ve just put £100 down on Spuds for the title. Only one winner for me this year.
:'( sigh.
Fair play to ya mate for admitting what so many spammers wont. Spurs are in a different league to u lot and have been for many years. The players u mentioned above are all top top class and u forgot Coentrao which is a seperate deal from any Bale deal anyway.
I personally dom’t care if Bale stays or goes now, hes an excellent player but weve replaced him now anyway. Obviously id like to see him stay and bang another 20+ again with soldado and lamela getting 40+ between them too. Title form that 🙂
Chin up lads, u did win the world cup 😉
Typical Yid,
One game into the season and already they are intergalactic champions, floating about posting on other clubs sites. Sitting blogging or twattering and blowing up each others arses on your own websites all the time must get boring. Good players yes, but good players dont make a team. You only creeped a 1-0 against palace, with a lucky penalty. Come the end of the season 5th or 6th again. AVB had a good team with chelsea and could’nt do nothing there. And whats with the smiley faces, are you 5
To Yiddo, your post, the unfounded arrogance, ignorance and hubris are the very epitome of Spurs fans and the reason they’re the most despised in football.
Yeah we did. We’ll never win it again either unless top clubs buy and play ENGLISH players.
How many England internationals and fringe players have gone to Spurs and seen their career go backwards?
U knw wat? I agree with u totally. My money is on spurs 4 da title. I feel it.
What a ridiculous comment, you have just wasted 100 quid cuz tottenham wont even get top 4. As for Bale, hes the most overrated player ive ever seen in my life, if someone actually crunched him for once and went in for a tackle then he might not score so many.
Dont get carried away guys who laughs first cries first at the end of the season will tell who has done well in there transfers and managing their squads
I don’t think you got the Liverpool pair for £20m though, it was likely a fair amount more. Their wages are higher than a club of West Ham’s size can realistically support. They were both on about £90k a week at Liverpool and I doubt they took pay cuts as modern players rarely do. Neither player is worth that wage.
West Ham are a perennial yo yo club bouncing between the top league and the league below. The only place they were rivals to Spurs was in the tiny brains of the deluded.
How are we a yo yo club when we have only spent 4 years outside of the top flight? And yes we did get get Carroll and Downing for a combined total of 20 million and once again, yes we can realistically support there wages because we sell out upton park every game and will soon be moving to A 60,000 seat stadium. Downing was on 70k at liverpool and as is on 50k at west ham and Carroll was on 90k and is now on 80k.
Sorry Dan I forgot football only began when the prem was created.
West Ham are and always have been a yo yo club buy a West Ham History book and educate yourself.
Oh and your fan base isn’t large enough to fill a state funded 60k seat stadium unless you give half of them away.
Your current gates aren’t where they are purely down to capacity and will suddenly double when this is expanded.
That is basically your supporter base and unless you cut the ticket price and do more kids for a £1 type promotions (which I actually admire and think more clubs should do more to encourage tomorrow’s supporters) it will not significantly rise.
West ham run radio adverts as it is to drum up trade. Do you honestly expect another 20k-30k fans to appear out of thin air?
West Ham have a bigger fan base then tottenham = Fact. The fact is we will easily fill 55k to 60k seats because the new transport links etc… There are thousands of fans who dont go to games because of tavel. West Ham will hold more deals , but there will family deals etc.. This will seee our revenue increase dramatically. Also west ham being a yoyo club is a myth pick up a history book yourself and you will see that most of our time has always been spent in the top division. We have currently sold out over 30 consecutive home games and if we stay in division and even get europa league before we move then suddenly our revenue has increased again. I cant wait for West Ham vs spurs because when u come to upton park without Bale, who will get yu three points out of nothing, especially to the sounds of silent away fans. Tottenham must have he worst fans ive ever ever heard, they only sing when there winning.
How is it a fact? Spurs have had a higher gate than west ham for the last 100yrs.
Last season was the highest avg attendance in your clubs 118yr history and it was lower than ours. http://www.whufc.com/articles/20130524/hammers-fans-set-attendance-record_2236884_3189783
Proving you don’t even have a clue and make up “facts” that don’t exist. Your fan base is tiny and you won’t even get 10k more on your gate unless you basically give the tickets away. If you hadn’t been given the stadium it would NEVER have been financially viable to move from where you are.
Even the Goons don’t always get 60k and they have had champions league football and have been in it for 15 consecutive years and have a fan base at least 10x yours. Man city have a bigger fan base and were getting better gates than you while playing in the 3rd tier! Yet they only avg 47k how on earth do you think you will get 55-60k. You are a fantasist plain and simple. Simple being the operative word as you clearly are.
Don’t worry. You guys can fight for mid-table honours with the scums down the road
Anyone tipping Spurs for the title needs their head tested. We have made some good signings … but they will need time to gel … and noone knows if they will work well together. Personally I am gutted that we have gone all ‘modern’ with so many foreigners replacing the British players in our squad. I used to despise the Gooners for having no English players and was always proud that we always fielded at least six. I know it’s the modern game … but this is why England will never win anything. A few years ago we had Robinson, Dawson, Hudd, Jenas, Defoe all in the England side. Even from last year we have now got rid of Parker, Hudd, Caulker and more. Danny Rose won’t last on e we get Coentao. I KNOW that all the new players are upgrades … but it’s a sad reality that young English talent will not be trusted at the highest level. Fair play to the Hammers and their English spine.
Sounds like Spurs have gone from England ‘B’ to Brazil/Portugal ‘B’ ……
British players clearly aren’t good enough on the whole and most are completely over priced. You only have to look at the previous prices paid for the recently acquired west ham “stars” by Liverpool to see this £35m was paid for Carrol and £20m for Downing.
I want Spurs to sign the best players it can I don’t care about their passports. If you want to follow a team purely because of passports follow the national team and forget about club football.
Exactly what did Spurs achieve when they had this English spine?
England have only won a world cup once in it’s whole history and for the majority of that time there were no foreign players playing here.
I’d say it is sad that there is not much English talent as opposed to clubs fielding inferior players just because of their nationality. It is youth coaching that needs to be addressed once better players are produced clubs will sign them.
I feel West Hams signings have all been an improvement on what was already at the club. That has to be the aim surely ? What that means in terms of league position only time will tell.As fot Spurs some good possibly great signings for me Soldado is pure class and Capoue looked very useful on Sunday. Don’t want us to get labelled title challengers yet as Citeh and the Chavs are going to be stronger this year but it’s nice to think we have a chance
Mmm. This reminds me of a season, long long ago…ahh yes. Could it have been in the eighties? perhaps . Some spur were very assured that season of big things but alas the hammer came down to spoil a pretty picture.
Spurs wont win the title this season, or next. This window they have done what they always do, spend a fortune on players that will not perform in the the Premier League. (Oh to have a rich owner who doesn’t pay any tax).
Once the Brazilians start getting cold around november and crying off, the hordes of fickle spuds fans will start their usual moaning, the board will panic AGAIN and it’s tata AVB.
“Jonesy” and “Blimey” – the bitterness is unbelievable. Personally I’ve never fully understood why West Ham fans hate spurs so much as it’s been a while since we were on a par and it isn’t like were situated all that close to each other.
Firstly, we have a billionaire owner, yes, but it’s well documented he has never actively pumped money in and we always spend within our means – so it’s irrelevant. Secondly, we haven’t signed “Brazil/Portugal B” as Sandro and Paulinho are both starters and so is Coentrao (if he comes). Nor do I see either of the Brazillians being the sort to “cry off” (have you never watched Sandro play?!). I think you lot have had a good transfer period and will have a good season, but if I were you I’d stop trying to stoke this “rivalry” as we’re playing in different ball-parks – your “good” is top ten, ours is top four.
Deluded Ben,
When was that team with a chicken standing on a ball top 4, also its not just
hammers fans that hate you but vertually every team in the league, A rat as a chairman who suits you well because he is as deluded as the fans, 18 more premiership teams websites to post on telling the supporters how great you are and we are only 1 week into the season, maybe you should spend some of the Bale money on a decent website and chat amounst yourselfs about how great you are…..DELUDED !
Twice in the last four seasons and the other two Spurs have been 5th. Why make comments when you are totally ill informed and make yourself look stupid?
I don’t hate West Ham they are insignificant and not even worthy or consideration let alone hate.
This article showed up on the spurs page of news now hence the added Spurs traffic.
mmmm Twice and 5th, and one week into the season not worth bragging about !
as i said DEEELUUUUUDED ! the past is the past the future is claret and blue.
Let’s just deal in facts for once as you are either totally stupid or a troll. 2012/13 finished 5th, 2011/12 finished 4th, 2010/11 finished 5th, 2009/10 finished 4th. So as I said before in answer to your question as to when Spurs finished 4th Spurs have finished 4th in 2 of the last four seasons the other times finishing 5th.
Why ask a question then ignore the answer it makes you look stupid. The only deluded one here is you. The future is either a half empty state funded stadium or very very cheap tickets and West ham finishing mid table at best.
I know several Spurs fans, they are all the same. Claims of superiority before a ball is kicked, followed by screams for the managers head when they find themselves behind the Arsenal again.
They can spend as much as they like on foreign players who simply wont be able to cope for an entire season in England, it will all end in tears AGAIN!. it always has and it always will.
Johnsey why are you perpetuating a myth that was disproved years ago. More foreign players play in the prem than English so does the prem now shut down at the midway point? Talk sense or shut up.
West Ham fans are so jealous and bitter it is funny. Why don’t you worry about your own side and your famous rivalry with Millwall?
Johnsey please give it a rest. It’s true what they’re saying and you know it. I didn’t want the olympic stadium, no true hammer did. We won’t be able to genuinely fill 60,000 seats without giving half of them away. The truth is spuds have left us for dead. We can make arguments about spending etc and buying English players but where does it get us? Spuds had a good English core for several years and still have the likes of Walker, Rose, Dawson, Judas, Townsend and Carroll in their ranks who will all get games. They have addressed a problem correctly and signed 2 world class players and several top class players and we have Andy Carroll and Stewart Downing… They look to be getting Willian and Lamela which even at the cost of Bale is frightening. Do a comparison of man for man and you’d be hard pressed to find one of our boys in a best 11.
Spuds are on a different planet now and this bloody stadium is going to destroy our club.
Well we will see if the Brazilians can hack it or not, time will tell.
Why do you moan that Spurs have left us behind (were we ever on par) then complain about the one thing that would at least give us a chance of parity (the OS)?
And thanks for answering for all “true hammers” who according to you don’t want the OS.
My first game was in 1967, From 1978 – 1987 I didn’t miss a single game home or away, including a nightmare journey to Tiblisi, (I’m not counting Luton away) since 1987 I have missed a total of 7 yes SEVEN home games, but according to your comments I’m not a true hammer, thanks mate.
How will it give us parity? Not much point having a huge stadium that a) looks half empty and b) we don’t have the quality to compete. I don’t know any hammers who want the OS, yes it will look fantastic and would give us the means to compete financially but can you see us attracting the top class players that other clubs in the PL can? Also, I can’t ever see it as home. The Boleyn is and always will be home. I’d much rather us invest money into redeveloping Upton Park than see us move. Look at Arsenal. Ok, the emirates is a very nice stadium but all my Gooner mates say how much they miss old times at Highbury. Maybe its just me, I am set in my ways I suppose.
We need 5-10 solid years in the Europa league before we can start challenging the top 4, even with the increased capacity, we won’t attract top names any more than Newcastle to at St. James’. I worry about us long-term as I can’t see where we are going to turn it around and claim a seat at the top table.
Bear in mind, 3 of the places are gone every year. Man shitty and Chelski have more money than sense, Manure have always been there and always will be, Spuds are spending to ensure their place for many years to come, the gooners are miles ahead of us in every aspect, Liverpool will always be a threat, Everton are better than us and have been for over a decade.
I don’t mean to sound like a pessimist but it’s all true. Obviously I don’t want to see us just give up, that’s the whole fun of it but how many of you can realistically see us breaking the top 4 in our lifetimes? Our kids lifetimes? It would be amazing but I can’t see it.
Football has changed and without a multi-billionaire owner to give you the shortcuts you need, you have virtually no chance of ever breaking into that elite group.
Oh and the undercover yid comment, I would rather you call me a c*nt than insinuate that.
The Boleyn has changed massively from the old days, no more standing, no more chicken run, no more north bank, no more south bank, no more west side. For those of us who went to football pre Premier League the ground isn’t what it was, so apart from being a pain to get to and from it ceased being “home” years ago.
I take it you are still living at home with Mum and Dad and have never moved in your life?
F,,,,,,,H,,,,,,l Are you on a wind up . I cant figure if you are 15 or 50 Dont you know what we have bean through the last 30 + years, you must be an undercover yid . either get on the bus and enjoy the ride or buy a different shirt.
SORRY,
Have you won anything NO Have you finished 3rd,,,errrr NO, Have you progressed in the CL errrr no Carling cup …..FA cup………………… ergo…………ego The future is claret and blue !
You claimed Spurs hadn’t been a top for club for a long time yet I educated that they have been twice in the last four seasons and fifth the other two, end of.
You would have to go back to the 1980’s for the one and only time West ham have been in the top for in about 70yrs. You are not and never have been on our level your rival is Milwall you mug.
We did actually finish 3rd once in the Premier League era thank you.
When?
West Ham have finished no higher than 5th in ’89, since the prem began and their highest ever finish in their whole history in the top flight was 3rd in 1985!!!
Why do you lot on this blog make things up? A quick google enables anyone to check facts.
Funny as fcuk.
How’s Willian?
So you make a totally baseless claim about finishing 3rd in the prem. When it never happened, you get called out an proved wrong. All you have to come back with is that.
We have signed Paulinho, Chadli, Soldado, Capoue their combined value is more than your whole squad you mug.
Well actually what you PAID for them is more than our entire squad, their value is yet to be proven.
You seem very keen to restrict your football history only to the premier league, A quick look shows that Spurs finished between 7th and 15th for almost the entire history of the PL until they started trying to compete with chelski and Citeh and buy success.
The very epitome of a mid-table club.
Not at all. I replied directly to comments made in the thread which a simple click on the first page will reveal.
You seem to have made an inaccurate comment on one post without even looking at the context in which it was made.
Never let facts get in the way of making a point then. Unlike City and Chelsea, Spurs live within their means. Our level of spending (in the premiere league era) has always been in line with the income we bring in. Our average net spend for the duration of the premiere league is about £15m net per season anyway which is nothing like the clubs you mentioned and to accuse us of trying to buy success is laughable.
We have always been a much bigger club than West Ham, had bigger gates, more success on and off the pitch our history during and prior to the prem has always been superior to yours. This enables us to spend more both in transfers and wages, it is how the football food chain works.
Your little Scandinavian adventure is an example of trying to buy success and failing miserably, almost bankrupting your club. Using your way of thinking all of the successful clubs since the advent of league football bought their success. Is that what you actually think?
There you go again, mis-using facts.
As I pointed out earlier, Spurs were simply an average mid-table PL team until the last 5 years, then they embarked on a spending spree – £265m on players in the last 5 years, behind only Citeh, Chelski and of course Daglish’s Scousers.
This wont change anytime soon either because Spurs to do not possess a youth system worth talking about, was it really Ledley King the last player to come through the system at WHL?
Admittedly your crowds of 38500 are more than ours right now, but that wont last either, and Levy knows it, that’s why he tried to hijack the move to the OS.
Every Spurs fan I know screams “we’re a big club” “we’re a big club” You’re not, you never were and you’ll never be.
Just accept where you are in the greater scheme of things and try to enjoy it – we have!
Facts are facts our net spend (which is spend above income from sales as you are obviously too thick to understand this) is on avg about £15m a season for the duration of the prem.
How can a FACT be misused?
I notice you failed to acknowledge your period of trying to buy success which I clearly highlighted.
We don’t need a youth system per se as we are able to buy the talent we need with the income we generate, but a look at the u21 league and our performances in the next gen would show you that we are doing well on that front too.
At the end of the day like most west ham fans you are jealous of Spurs as we have always been better than you always will be and you hate it.
The way you present the numbers is disingenuous too. As previously stated we have never tried to buy success i.e spending money that we don’t have. We have only finished out side the top 10 six times in 21 seasons, and our lowest ever finish of 15th was in 93/94 in a 22 club prem. We have had 6 finishes in the top 5, have only been outside the top 5 twice in the last 8 seasons.
You might think we are a mid table team but the last decade would show otherwise. Either way we are in a totally different league to west ham in terms of support, income, spending, quality of squad, stadium, training ground, every metric you can think of.
Oh dear, you know you’ve lost when you have to resort to childish insults.
8th, 15th 7th, 8th, 10th, 14th, 11th, 10th, 12th, 9th, 10th, 14th, 9th, 5th, 5th, 11th, 8th, 4th, 5th, 4th, 5th, now these are FACTS, this averages out at 9th, would you class that as mid-table or not?
So that means you have finished in the top 3 as many times as ……………….US !
I appreciate that you have spent almost as much on players as you generated with sales, but surely unless they came through your non-existant youth team you must have purchased them first.
The facts are mate you have the 12th biggest crowd, you average 9th place, yet you’ve spent the 4th largest amount of money.
Mid – table little club.
It would only be an insult if it wasn’t supported by your inability to comprehend simple facts that are easily verified. Someone that can’t comprehend facts illustrated in plain English is thick.
You compared us to City and Chelsea who have spent money that their clubs didn’t generate (e.g through legitimate footballing means, gate receipts, sponsorship, player trading and prize money etc) to purchase players to achieve success on the field.
That is called buying success. I’ve stated clearly that Spurs haven’t done this as the money they spend is money they have earned. This is a very simple concept which you either are unable to grasp or chose to ignore and it refutes your agenda. You seem to finally accept this but then try and rant about not producing home grown players as if this has anything to do with the original point.
Player trading is a totally legitimate part of football business. If we buy players with our earned money, develop them and sell them at a profit to fund more player investment I don’t see how you can have a problem with that. Spurs business model is obviously sustainable (unlike that of City and Chelsea which you tried to compare us to) so whether we buy in talent or produce it in house is not relevant.
I repeat in case you missed (most likely chose to ignore) it our performances in the u21 league(where we topped the table at the end of the league season ahead of Man utd, Liverpool, Arsenal had almost double the points of west hams team and only lost I the final to UTD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012–13_Professional_Development_League_1) and Next Gen Tournament you will see we are making great strides in addressing our poor record of bring through talent.
At no point in this debate (which anyone can see) did I say Spurs were a massive club. We are massive compared to west ham though who are miniscule in comparison. At no point did I claim Spurs have finished in the top 3, whereas a west ham fan claimed they had after implying that we have never been in the top four when we clearly have twice in the last 4 seasons, and 5th the other two.
It is true that our avg league finish in 21 seasons has been 9th, I never said it hadn’t been. I’m glad you listed our finishes in chronological order as it proves the points I made earlier. It also shows a pattern of progression that in 8 years we have only not been in the top 5 twice. This upward trend indicates that with each new season our avg finish will only come down.
Let’s look at your premiere league record, you have only been in it for 17 of the 21 seasons therefore your average flatters you as if weighted it would be significantly lower about 16th. That would be time consuming and I can’t frankly be arsed.
Your average is about 12th but you have been relegated twice. championship,13th,14th,10th,14th,8th,5th,9th,15th,7th,18th,championship, championship (promoted after coming 6th!), 9th, 15th, 10th, 9th, 17th, 20th, championship, 10th. So you have been in the top 10 eight times compared to Spurs 15, in the top 5 once compared to our 6.
I notice again you failed to accept your Scandinavian attempt at buying success which almost led to you going to the wall.
The same way you tried to argue that with a bigger ground your attendances will rise, so can I. Your claim isn’t borne out by historical facts as last season was the best avg gate in your clubs whole history(link from official west ham site included earlier in this thread). Whereas prior to all seater grounds we averaged close to 60k with our highest gate at the lane being 75k.
Anyway the point I’ve been making since I entered this thread was that Spurs are, always have been, and always will be bigger and better than west ham. No one can predict the future but history proves that the first two points are matters of FACT.
Nothing you have said has disproved what I claimed or possibly can. You strike me as the sort of person who likes to have the last word so no doubt you will reply trying to bring in factors that were never being debated in the first place. I’m sure you will realise if you are honest with yourself that when it comes to our respective clubs we are in a totally different league to you and it hurts.