West Ham United fans have been incensed by co-owner David Gold after he endorsed a tweet defending the club’s lack of spending this summer.
So far the Hammers have only signed ageing defender Pablo Zabaleta on a free transfer from Manchester City.
Slaven Bilic has been linked with moves for a plethora of players from Joe Hart to Chris Smalling, Kelechi Iheanacho and Olivier Giroud.
The East Londoners, who struggled to an 11th place finish in the Premier League last season and flirted with relegation for large parts, have already missed out on a number of targets with striker Henry Onyekuru choosing Everton over them.
West Ham manager Slaven Bilic
The likes of Havard Nordtveit, Alvaro Arbeloa and Gokhan Tore, Stephen Hendrie and Raphael Spiegel have all left the club while Enner Valencia, Sofiane Feghouli and Robert Snodgrass are expected to follow them out of the exit door.
West Ham’s lack of spending has been in stark contrast to a number of other Premier League and European clubs and comes off the back of a disastrous year of recruitment.
Many fans feel grand promises from Gold and fellow co-owner David Sullivan over spending has been a ploy to sell season tickets at the Olympic Stadium.
If it is then it has worked with 52,000 signing up for the second consecutive season.
And on the day it was announced the club has sold out of season tickets, Gold has incensed supporters by endorsing a message on Twitter defending the lack of spending after influential midfielder Pedro Obiang followed Michail Antonio and Angelo Ogbonna in signing new contracts.
A Hammers fan posted: “More new contracts for our best players it seems. Great business from David Gold and David Sullivan. Not all about purchases.”
The post was retweeted by David Gold to his 182,000 followers and that did not go down well with supporters who reacted in large numbers by mocking the sentiment and demanding the club spends.
West Ham co-owner David Gold
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
