One of few Premier League clubs whose scouting has largely rejected or deprioritised data, they have a list of transfer failings which can rival the very worst. Since joining in 2023, there’s little evidence technical director Tim Steidten has done anything to improve that.
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Read MoreThat Julen Lopetegui could not even get the best from these three was an obvious indicator his tenure would not last long. But it would be unfair to suggest he was handed a flawless – or even particularly good – squad, despite £120m spent during the summer.
A signing Lopetegui pushed for against Steidten’s better judgement, the Argentine turned out to be a poor fit for the club and the league, especially when Edson Alvarez was already there.
Luis Guilherme
Guilherme embodies the very worst of the schism between Lopetegui and Steidten.
Evidence that Niclas Fullkrug’s move has worked is very slim (Photo: Getty)
Now, Fullkrug is a perfectly good striker, not that that ever means much at West Ham. But £27m for an injury-prone 31-year-old was baffling at the time and has aged dreadfully, with two goals from nine appearances broken up by a lingering Achilles issue.
Gianluca Scamacca
One of the greats of the genre. Signed for £30.5m in July 2022, by August 2023 he was on his way out for £8m less than his initial fee, having scored three league goals.
Who is Luizao, I hear you ask? Great question. Now 22, the centre-back signed from Sao Paulo in January 2023, on a three-year contract and has since played zero senior minutes. He’s now up for sale and will likely never wear the Claret and Blue in a competitive match.
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File this one under: why? This was a signing made because he was available, the laziest possible option for a perfectly middling price at £17.5m, after a fine but not special season with Burnley.
Nikola Vlasic
Between Everton and West Ham, Vlasic has played four seasons in the Premier League and made 31 appearances.
Two defensive midfielders signed on loan two years apart, who made nine league appearances combined for the club, only one of which was Kral.
Sebastien Haller
Best remembered for one brilliant bicycle kick, and his 400 failed attempts at repeating it. A £40m signing sold for less than half that two years into a five-year deal, he bagged 14 in 54 West Ham matches before becoming one of the most prolific strikers in Europe almost immediately after leaving.
Jack Wilshere’s body had long started failing him when Arsenal let him go (Getty Images)
Introducing a new sub-category – players whose careers are obviously over to everyone but West Ham executives, aka “they’re free for a reason”.
As for Nasri, he was picked up after an 11-month doping ban, turned up overweight and played six matches. Arbeloa didn’t even manage that, clearly already half-retired to anyone outside east London. These were unnecessary risks who became wasted money.
Bad West Ham striker
This is a club uniquely bad at buying strikers, so much so that they had to convert their right-back into their all-time Premier League goalscorer. Incompetence at the highest level over such a long period of time in both their striker scouting and coaching should incite some form of points deduction.
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