West Ham snapped up 12 new signings over the summer – but Robbie Savage isn’t so impressed.
Robbie Savage
Pundit Robbie Savage has told The Mirror he is ‘not that impressed’ with how West Ham’s summer transfer window went, despite their efforts to strengthen their squad.
The Hammers impressed in Slaven Bilic’s first season with the club last term, but their summer has been up and down to say the least.
Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling in action with West Ham United’s Arthur Masuaku
On the one hand, they managed to keep star player Dimitri Payet despite his heroics both last season and with France at Euro 2016, but on the other they crashed out of the Europa League with an embarrassing defeat to Astra Giurgiu for the second year running.
Players have been brought to the club in their droves, but a number of those signings have already suffered injuries, meaning Bilic has been left a little short of quality so far this term.
West Ham’s Dimitri Payet looks dejected
A total of 12 signings arrived at the new London Stadium this summer, with Alvaro Arbeloa, Arthur Masuaku, Havard Nordtveit, Sofiane Feghouli, Andre Ayew, Gokhan Tore, Edimilson Fernandes, Domingos Quina, Ashley Fletcher, Antonio Martinez Jonathan Calleri and Simone Zaza all signing for the Hammers.
With those additions made, West Ham will again be hoping to push for a top eight finish this season, but they didn’t land the big-money, big-name striker they were looking for – and Robbie Savage isn’t sure just how much they’ve improved despite all those signings.
Simone Zaza celebrates after scoring for Juventus
Pundit Savage told The Mirror that he thinks the biggest achievement of the summer was keeping playmaker Payet, but believes ‘the jury is out’ on whether they’ve really improved this summer.
“Keeping Dimitri Payet was their best achievement,” said Savage. “I am not that impressed, or sure they’ve kicked on. They got Simone Zaza on loan from Juve. Whether they are massively improved… the jury is out,” he added.
Once everybody is back to full fitness, Bilic will have an array of attacking options that he just didn’t have last season. When you add Feghouli, Tore and Ayew to the existing attacking midfielders of Payet, Manuel Lanzini and Michail Antonio, there is real quality in the final third there.
Zaza may not be a big-name striker, but he’s flashed real ability in Italy, and alongside the gamble of Jonathan Calleri, West Ham should have firepower to call upon – but bedding all these new signings in quickly is the challenge for Bilic as West Ham look to build on last season’s showing.
What do you think of West Ham’s summer signings?
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