Sky Sports pundits Paul Merson and Tony Gale have rounded on West Ham United owners David Sullivan and David Gold over the club’s transfer outlay.
The Hammers had been widely regarded as having done some good business during the summer window after bringing in Pablo Zabaleta, Joe Hart, Marko Arnautovic and Javier Hernandez.
A dreadful start to the new Premier League season, though, has seen Slaven Bilic’s side lose all three of their matches so far to prop up the table with a worrying minus eight goal difference already.
After the clutch of signings things had been looking up for West Ham this summer. But only Hernandez has impressed on the pitch so far.
The club was linked with a club record move for Portugal star William Carvalho over the last three weeks and more recently Barcelona’s Andre Gomes.
But when the transfer window slammed shut West Ham failed to add to their business despite being rooted to the bottom of the table with a shambolic defensive unit.
While Bilic has taken most of the flack so far, Hammers legend Tony Gale and his fellow Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson have instead taken aim at the owners for a lack of sufficient investment since the club’s much heralded move to the London Stadium last summer.
West Ham’s owners pledged the move to the former Olympic Stadium would enable the club to spend big on signings and compete with the league’s top six.
But Gale told Sky Sports earlier this week that a net spend of around £13million since the move to the former Olympic Stadium last summer was simply ‘nowhere near enough’.
And assessing Gale’s comments and West Ham’s business, Merson agreed.
“Pablo Zabaleta is a good pro, but is coming towards the end of his career, but I think they’ve made three strong signings in Joe Hart, Marko Arnautovic and Javier Hernandez,” Merson told Sky Sports.
“However, it’s not enough, is it? I saw Tony Gale on TV, saying they have spent £4m net (if striker Diafra Sakho was sold for the reported £9million before deadline – a move which failed to materialise) in (the last few) years which is ridiculous.
“They should be spending £100m, but I will give them a decent grade because what they have brought in is decent.”
West Ham were named the 18th richest club in Europe in terms of income back in January and the club’s finances were looking extremely healthy when analysed by HITC last season.
And that does not take into account the £35m raised from selling Dimitri Payet and James Tomkins last season or the fact the Hammers did not shell out for a striker as promised when Simone Zaza’s loan was cancelled.
So it does beg the question just where has all the extra revenue from the new stadium, player sales, sponsorship, merchandising, the sale of Upton Park, record TV deals, Premier League prize money and what would usually be budgeted for transfers gone?
Only Sullivan and Gold can provide the answers.
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