S-Clarke

Yeah, I think we were pretty steadfast on keeping him out of Leicester until after the window shut. But Leicesters lack of signings is more around their lack of money, they're in the same situation as we were/are. They had 1 or 2 bad transfer windows and it's killed them. Shows how quickly it can change, as their scouting was absolutely spot on 3 years ago and they were selling big/reinvesting that money well. But it's all gone wrong.

Good point on Everton, i think they're still struggling financially to be honest. I think Brentford have done alright, some of the better recruits. I like Lewis-Potter, their LB is quality (Hickey) and their GK is a huge upgrade on who was their understudy last season.

There are still a few clubs to do very little of note, which is a bit surprising. Brighton haven't done anything of note yet (they need to replace Bissouma and Burn). Leicester have openly said they have to sell before they can get anyone. We've just lumbered them with the crap that stopped us being able to buy anyone. Bournemouth are the biggest surprise though. They've just got a free transfer in the door so far, they've got a lot of work to do if they're going to be competitive.

It does make you wonder. I've always wondered why teams of that ilk were interested in Bednarek, I guess it's because they saw a potential 'cheap' experienced option - but maybe we've told them he's not as cheap as they'd expected. If we're pricing him at £20m then we'll never get any buyers.

Don't the fee's they report account for every single potential add-on in the deal? (even though some may never be met)

Yeah, I feel a bit sorry for small. In the game against Cov in the FA Cup he was kind of hung out to dry surrounded by crap, and he was given a start today in a very substandard team with the likes of Stephens etc providing cover. He'd have probably looked better with Salisu covering behind him.

You wouldn't think he's only 18 to be honest, he certainly has the potential to make a similar immediate impact as Tino did for us. Just need to be careful not to run him into the ground.

I think at least two - a proper number 9 striker, who we can play to, and another nippy/smaller more mobile attacker who could play up front or wide. The third addition will probably be reserved for full back cover, as we're also desperately short there if you look at it. Perraud and KWP are the only two starters we look likey to have for the start of the season, although Perraud is injured.

So, two pre-season games and sadly we still face similar troubles as we did in the real games. To put it bluntly, we lack quality and any sort of top flight ability in the attack. Moussa and Adam Armstrong might run around a bit, but they are simply dire footballers and it's not like they've been given 2 weeks to settle. Moussa in particular is the most pointless attacking player I think I've ever seen. I like the back with Bella-Kotchap and Salisu in there, I think that immediately adds a little more pace and recovery to our game. Lavia changed the game when he came on, a huge uplift in quality in that '6' position. He's confident enough in his own ability to use it to burst through the lines, that is a big difference I've noticed. Our midfield is often too one paced, so this adds another dimension. Aribo looked better than the first game, he has good physicality and is able to play across the front positions - very similar to Stu Armstrong and I have a feeling those two could potentially work quite well together. But it's all too obvious where the missing pieces are. We need to get our attacking signings spot on, these will make or break our season. There's no doubt that we're relegated without the right additions in those areas. I'd be keen to see Tella, Smallbone and Small get some regular football on loan as all 3 are crying out for that, otherwise they'll never progress.

If it's running into players and blind corners you're after!

It always falls down at the same players. Moussa, Elyounoussi, Adam Armstrong. Stu, Lavia, Aribo have done some good work breaking the lines, but as soon as it gets to one of those 3 above it just dies. And that is all too big a dejavu.

tbf I think we'd struggle to score goals in whatever formation we play given the options we have at the mo.

It's refreshing to see some legs and power in CM, that's been a big problem for a few years. As combative as JWP and Romeu are, they don't exactly give you much in the way of forward penetration or pace to break the lines. Now we just need to sort out the players Lavia will feed the ball to...

I like Lavia, I can see the difference he's made in CM in this second half. The attack is a huge concern though, but luckily the club do agree with that. Probably our most important additions of the summer to come, season make or breakers.

That was a chance, the movement in front of Armstrong was simply diabolical though.

Yep, as per most of his finishes - pretty tame.

He didn't really get anything on that pen, needed to be in the corner. Wasn't anything really. It was a decent save, but also a pretty tame effort. Can't read too much into pre-season games as a rule, but you can't avoid the elephant in the room that the same issues as last season continue to plague us (no one who can score goals)

Not seeing or feeling that at all.

I totally agree, I think we are in the league by luck if I'm honest. I don't quite know how we managed to stay in it given the complete mess of recruitment we made post VVD. I think this is the first summer the shackles seem a little bit looser though, fair enough we're not going above 10/15m but we're spreading that across a lot of positions rather than spending an entire chunk of the budget on one. There are so many clubs who have been bitten by their record signings - Lukaku, Pogba, NDombele, Sigurdson, Haller, Carillo....! The list goes on. Decent scouting could have probably got you someone 3 times cheaper than any of those and they'd have made more impact.

The general trend is that the more you spend, the more successful you are. But there are also some big anomalies in that mix which means its sensible to apply a sense of caution, looking at ourselves and Everton as two examples. Everton spent half a billion on new players and ended up almost getting relegated, so they spent that to make their team worse. We spent over £90m on players we had to give away for free, whilst also making our team worse. So whilst spending money can get you moving up the table, it only really happens if your scouting is right and aligned. If you have a strong DoF, strong recruitment team, joined up philosophy etc then it works - but if you don't, you can easily overspend on players that don't fit the club and get little return back. Equally, the strong DoF/Recruitment team may be able to see value transfers that others overlook for the more flashy big fees.

Yeah I remember he was an example of being a truly standout player in the MLS, his assist records were crazy if I remember. Other players who have stormed the MLS is a certain BWP.......nothing more than a mid to lower Championship player in this country. (although he may have developed over there to be fair to him)

Broja is kind of an example of what we're trying to do as a club, sign talented somewhat 'unproven' players, give them a platform and allow them to go onto bigger and better in a year or two. So I never saw it as realistic we could sign him, I think we'd done our job with Broja and we gave him that window to showcase himself. I think Sports Republic have now given us the opportunity to permanently sign these sort of young players, rather than having to loan them, so we actually get some financial benefit at the end of it should they do well.

The only one I can think of doing as such is Miguel Almirion, fairly sure he came from the MLS straight to Newcastle. He hasn't been 'amazing' for them, but far from terrible. (He always seems to score against us, but then who doesn't)

£25-30m is a huge amount of money on someone who in the main is still what I'd class as an inexperienced/unproven player. I think that fee is paying for the potential as he clearly has a ton of it and will become top class - but for that fee I'd expect someone a tiny bit more experienced. Unless any buy-back is in the region of £60m then it's a poor deal for West Ham. I'd 'hope' our scouting is more than good enough to find a player who can score us 9/10 goals and is in and around the £10-15m mark. Basically we missed a trick not signing Broja last summer, I think we probably wanted to but we had no money (I reckon we'd have got him for £10-15m).

That's a quote from the video just put up on Youtube. He was also asked if a striker is often the 'hardest' one to bring in, and Ralph says yes if we're talking about money!