The January transfer window isn’t usually the best time for a club to engineer a rebuild – prices tend to be higher and funds less freely available, after all – but West Ham United are entering a period of change as the New Year rolls around regardless. Julen Lopetegui is gone, Graham Potter is in charge, and what had been a widely-praised summer transfer window seems to have gone awry. So how can the Hammers fix things in January?
Waiting patiently for the summer isn’t really an option. If Potter can’t figure things out, West Ham could easily be sucked into an unexpected relegation battle. In particular, this team needs to start scoring goals, something the former Brighton & Hove Albion and Chelsea manager’s teams have often struggled with. With Michail Antonio and summer signing Niclas Füllkrug both out of action with injuries, a striker is a clear priority, and rumours of a big signing are swirling accordingly.
The list of names West Ham have been linked to runs from Evan Ferguson to Randal Kolo Muani all the way up to Marcus Rashford via plenty of less famous names, but they’re unlikely to make more than one signing. Furthermore, there are reports of overseas interest in Edson Álvarez and plenty of gaps to fill across the squad – so we’ve decided to play a quick game of two truths and a lie to figure out what Potter and technical director Tim Steidten need to do this January to make sure the rest of the season goes rather more smoothly…
Truth: West Ham can’t afford to lose Álvarez
…At least not on a loan deal, which is what French outfit Monaco are reportedly offering, according to The Daily Mail and others. The Mexican midfielder, who was signed two years ago from Ajax in a deal worth a reported £35m, hasn’t been an especially huge hit at the London Stadium and isn’t exactly the archetypal Graham Potter player, but if West Ham do let him leave then they need to be able to replace him quickly.
As it stands, the Hammers have just three senior defensive midfielders – Álvarez, Tomáš Souček and Guido Rodríguez, who has been largely disappointing since arriving on a free transfer from Real Betis. Given that the squad has been built with a 4-2-3-1 formation firmly in mind, losing one of the regular starters at the base of the midfield without an immediate replacement could be disastrous for a team that are already struggling to keep clean sheets.
Álvarez isn’t the kind of technical midfielder that Potter usually values but is a fine defensive player, racking up impressive numbers for tackles and turnovers. If he can be sold for a substantial fee, then letting him depart is reasonable enough, but it looks likely that Monaco simply don’t have the spare cash to pay up front. Álvarez may not go down as a Hammers legend, but letting him leave right now makes little sense, and the decision to reject Monaco’s first approach seems sensible.
Truth: West Ham need to replace Füllkrug
This may border on stating the obvious, but the 31-year-old Germany international just hasn’t worked out. His fitness troubles have dogged him all season and the goals he was signed to score simply aren’t coming. With Antonio out following a serious car accident and Danny Ings past his prime, something has to be done.
West Ham are at least blessed by two good goalscoring wide players in the shape of Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus, but they aren’t able to score enough goals on their own and support is required through the centre – and while most rumours suggest that West Ham are eyeing a loan deal for now, presumably to avoid running into trouble with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules, whatever cash is left in the kitty needs to be diverted to the centre forward role to ensure that the club can score enough goals to stay well clear of the relegation battle.
As it stands, West Ham have scored only one more goal than 19th-placed Leicester City and only six teams have found the back of the net less frequently. Right now, were Kudus or Bowen to go down with a long-term injury, the club would have a major problem.
What West Ham need isn’t just any striker but someone who can be relied upon to score goals. The link to Evan Ferguson, for instance, may well be solid but the gifted young Irishman has yet to prove that he can score regularly in the top flight and West Ham can’t afford to move for a future prospect – signing Ferguson in the summer may well be a smart move, but they need someone who can score goals right now…
Lie: Marcus Rashford is the answer
Which is why Rashford, who has been widely linked with a loan move to the London Stadium following a dismal 18 months with Manchester United, may not be the answer either, even as The Daily Telegraph become the latest major news outlet to report that negotiations have started.
Rashford’s £300,000 per week wages could prove to be a stumbling block anyway, and interest from AC Milan and Como could also put a dampener on proceedings, but even if a move could be successfully negotiated, it would be a big risk to bet the house on a striker who is struggling for form and goals. Somewhere beneath the loss of confidence lies a world-class forward, but can West Ham afford to roll the dice and lose right now?
There’s also another very valid reason that Rashford doesn’t fit the bill right now – he’s generally played his best football wide left, where Kudus currently plays, and isn’t the kind of classical number nine that West Ham are missing. He has played the role very well in the past, but it would make far more sense to look for a true central striker who’s in better form, even if they aren’t a big name with as high of a ceiling.
There’s a good chance that the club who gambles on Rashford will end up being incredibly grateful that they did – few forwards in England can hit the high notes as well as Rashford did as recently as the 2022/23 season – but West Ham are in a situation where they need to think short term.
Once Potter has his feet under the desk and relegation has been averted, hopefully comfortably, then they can do the long-term planning and think about taking some chances. For now, the first thought has to be about survival, and that means signing players more likely to make an immediate impact.
