West Ham 2018-19 A whole new team?

Cellar-Door

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 1, 2006
34,660
Well, this has been a most unexpected summer.

The biggest moves are behind the scenes
Manuel Pellegrini takes over as manager.
Mario Husillos who Pellegrini worked with at Malaga came in as Sporting director.

OUTS:
Joe Hart- End of Loan
Joao Mario- End of Loan
James Collins- Contract allowed to expire
Patrice Evra- Contract allowed to expire
Reece Burke- sold to Hull for ~1.5M

IN
Ryan Fredricks on a free from Fulham
Jack Wilshire on a free from Arsenal
Lukasz Fabianski- 7M from Swansea
Issa Diop- 22M from Toulouse
Andriy Yarmolenko- 17M from Dortmund


Rumors:
Felipe Anderson allegedly had a medical today before a 40M move from Lazio
Fabian Balbuena medical (confirmed deal on instagram as did Corinthians) 4M from Corinthians
Meeting in London with Bernard and his agent he's a free agent after running down his contract at Shaktar.

Injuries:
Lanzini out until at least January with an ACL tear
Carroll- ankle cleanup/stabilization- estimated October return
Reid- Knee cleanup- estimated October return.


The general theme of the window has been a completely shocking high level of investment from the normally penny pinching dildo brothers.

Some speculation that one of the forces driving investment is Tripp Smith's recent acquisition of the 10% not owned by the Brothers Dildo. Some wonder if there is a deal in place for Smith to be offered first chance at Gold's shares (30.6%) when he dies or before with the intention of possibly buying some of Sullivan's shares (55.6%) to become majority owner. No real evidence, but interesting.
 

Cellar-Door

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 1, 2006
34,660
Time to talk to myself again.
Mid-season update.

A poor start has morphed into a solid season.
Many of the new signings have been excellent (Anderson, Diop, Balbuena, Fabianski)
Two are out for the season (Sanchez, Yarmolenko)
Among remaining players, Declan Rice has made the leap as a DM, and is now locked up long term.

The current big news of the window is that the on/off/on saga of Arnautovic to China may be on again, and his replacement may be lined up, with West Ham attempting to get Celta Vigo to agree to less than the release clause for Maxi Gomez, but possibly willing to just suck it up and activate the clause.