Leeds United taught West Ham a thing or two regarding player recruitment in the summer.
Hammers fans were left disgruntled with there club’s summer transfer business, after Slaven Bilic brought in a whole host of players who were unproven in the Premier League, and the majority of those signings have gone on to be complete and utter failures.
West Ham must change their approach to signing players, and rather than bring in stars based on their reputation in foreign leagues, they should be targeting players with individual skill-sets for specific roles in the side, backed up by analytical data, much like Leeds United did over the summer.
Garry Monk deserves so much credit for the job he has done at Elland Road since his appointment as manager in the summer, and a huge part of his success has to be put down to the players who he managed to bring into the club after his arrival.
West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic
Leeds signed 11 players in the summer (six permanent deals and five loans) and spent a total of £7.3 million.
West Ham on the other hand, brought in the same amount of players as the Whites, with eight permanent arrivals and three loan deals.
Their outlay though, was more than seven times that of the West Yorkshire side.
Bilic opted to bring in players with big reputations, such as Simone Zaza, Sofiane Feghouli and Andre Ayew, whilst Monk focused his recruitment on specific areas of his squad that needed improving.
Leeds United manager Garry Monk
He signed players with particular attributes that he thought would be required in order to be able to compete in the Championship, such as Pontus Jansson, Kyle Bartley and Hadi Sacko.
Whilst they are not household names, they have proven that with the right mental attitude and commitment to the cause, you don’t have to be well known to be a success in England.
And West Ham should try and emulate the way in which Leeds have gone about their business over the past six months, if they want to improve as a side.
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