OPINION
There is no doubting the fact that West Ham United have endured one of their most stressful transfer windows in the history of the club this summer.
The Hammers started quickly by sanctioning the exits of Adrian, Andy Carroll, Samir Nasri, Lucas Perez, and soon to be Pedro Obiang, with Gianluca Di Marzio reporting a deal should be completed by Friday.
Those departures were softened with the arrivals of David Martin, Roberto, Pablo Fornals, and club-record signing Sebastien Haller.
Claret and Hugh have recently claimed that through all of these deals, West Ham have made an annual saving of £15.3million, just from wages alone – surely enough to strengthen the squad even further.
That doesn’t seem to be the case, with Claret and Hugh now reporting that Manuel Pellegrini is said to be happy with his current squad, and realises that new additions are now unlikely.
West Ham could surely come to regret this decision, with certain areas of their squad more than begging for reinforcements in the transfer window.
With the sale of Obiang expected to be completed this week, the Hammers will be left with just Carlos Sanchez as their defensive midfield back-up. The Colombian international missed 215 days last season, which added up to 34 games [Source: Transfermarkt] and should he pick up a similar injury after surgery, Pellegrini will be short on options.
The recent Premier League Asia Trophy competition also highlighted how fragile West Ham are in defence without their influential pairing of Fabian Balbuena and Issa Diop. Angelo Ogbonna couldn’t have played much worst in both games, conceding a penalty in the first game, and losing Yoshinori Muto too easily in the box to allow a simple goal in the second.
According to WhoScored, Diop averaged more tackles, interceptions, clearances, and blocks compared to the Italian last season, with the Hammer definitely needing to be in the market for a new defensive enforcer.
Pellegrini is surely on the verge of a massive mistake next season, with the Hammers screaming out for at least a couple more reinforcements before their Premier League opener against Manchester City in less than three weeks.
