West Ham have made some baffling decisions this transfer window and need a result to stop the rot
Hammers chief David Sullivan revealed Slaven Bilic turned down chance to sign Renato Sanches and Grzegorz Krychowiak, while William Carvalho transfer saga is unbelievable
WEST HAM'S transfer window was all going so well - until the end.
We brought in England No1 Joe Hart, one of the best right-backs in recent years in Pablo Zabaleta, and a proven goalscorer in Javier Hernandez.
Marko Arnautovic never convinced me, but the Austrian had played some very good games against us for Stoke and I trusted Slaven Bilic's decision.
Add to this the highly talented and skilful Montenegro youngster, Sead Haksabanovic (yes I did look up that spelling) and it was all looking good.
But our squad needed more and both the club's failure to deliver has left our squad wanting and our net spend not enough.
William Carvalho looked to be a done deal and would have been perfect to sure up the defence which has conceded eight goals in three games.
A new forward would have also gone down well as Diafra Sakho and Andy Carroll cannot be relied upon for anything, and if Hernandez gets injured we would be in big trouble.
And a winger should have been on the cards following Robert Snodgrass' unceremonious departure.
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I was stunned when Bilic said he didn't want to sign any players other than Carvalho.
And it was frustrating when he apparently decided not to pursue Kelechi Iheanacho or any other strikers.
Surely experience of previous seasons shows Carroll and Sakho are not the answer.
Bilic also stated that he was only interested in signing Premier League proven players, despite Carvalho being his No1 target.
And it was because of this that he amazingly turned down Renato Sanches and Grzegorz Krychowiak, according to co-chairman David Sullivan.
Both players would have been massive additions to our squad and I am truly baffled by the decision not to pursue.
Plenty of excuses were bandied about as to why we didn't sign Carvalho.
Value for money, fitness issues, not getting a deal done in time.
But none of those reasons fly.
Our net spend was minimal and we could have afforded to pay over the odds, and he must be fit as he scored and assisted for Portugal against the Faroe Islands last week.
As for not getting a deal over the line before the window shut, there is a Premier League agreement which says you can sign a player, subject to a medical and complete it at another point. It just doesn't add up.
We have often been promised big name signings: Michy Bathsuayi, Alexandre Lacazette, Carlos Bacca and now Carvalho.
It seems our regular inability to land these players builds up expectations, but also makes you question how genuine our intentions are to sign these players?
Yes, it would always be difficult to land top-class stars, but if it is a question of us not reaching the asking price, then this is not what we were promised when we moved to the Olympic Stadium.
West Ham fans are a passionate bunch and one thing that won’t be tolerated is false promises and lies.
The club really needs to think about this going forward and start delivering the big statements to go some way to appeasing the negativity that has been created now.
Monday's Huddersfield game is huge for everyone involved.
A good performance will shift things in the right way, a bad performance and things will continue to turn very toxic.
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