West Ham’s biggest win from the January window was failing to sign striker for £30 million. The West Ham United fans were crying out for more signings in the January window.
However, sometimes it’s better to keep your powder dry. Graham Potter will be well aware of the size of the task that lies ahead of him at West Ham.
The 49-year-old Hammers head coach is said to be planning a big squad revamp at the London Stadium in the summer. The thing is, throwing money at panic signings in January would have reduced Potter’s summer budget.
Personally, I think that bringing in Evan Ferguson on loan and the return of James Ward-Prowse was the perfect January window transfer activity.
I expect to see at least six or seven new faces arrive at West Ham in the summer.
However, the key to being able to do that was Potter keeping his powder dry. The Hammers face a hugely important summer window ahead, and we cannot afford to make any mistakes in the transfer market.
West Ham’s biggest January window win was failing to sign striker
The Hammers fans have often criticised David Sullivan for not spending enough money in previous January transfer windows. Whilst a lot of that criticism has been fair, this time around I think the club got it spot on.
In fact, our biggest win of the window was missing out on one deal in particular as far as I’m concerned.
Ajax striker Brian Brobbey was firmly on West Ham’s radar in January. The Hammers were actually said to be close to signing Brobbey, before Ajax raised their demands to £30 million for the striker.
He wouldn’t have been a bad signing at all, but for that kind of money, bringing him to the London Stadium would have been a huge risk in my opinion. Potter made the right call by avoiding a move for Brobbey in the end.
West Ham can do so much better than Brian Brobbey
Don’t get me wrong, the Ajax man is a decent striker. After all, he did bag 18 goals in 30 Eredivisie games for Ajax last season.
However, the 23-year-old hitman has regressed badly this term, with just four goals to his name in all competitions.
Brobbey has decent pace, but he is so bulky that he struggles when receiving the ball in tight areas.
If West Ham are to make some genuine progress over the next few years, Graham Potter needs to bring a complete striker to the club to either play alongside Evan Ferguson if we sign the Irishman permanently, or lead the line for us on his own.
Jhon Duran would have been absolutely perfect for us, but that ship has long since sailed now.
Potter’s priority should be to sign the perfect striker for his system in the summer.
Had the Hammers folded in the January window and brought Brian Brobbey to the club for £30 million, Potter would not have been able to make a big striker signing in the summer. I truly believe that our failure to sign the young Dutch forward was the biggest win of West Ham January window.
