OPINION
West Ham are surely at risk of disappointing Manuel Pellegrini over his wish to sign three more players this summer as their plan to raise funds doesn’t seem good enough.
The Daily Star reported on Friday that the Hammers manager was hoping to welcome three more players to the London Stadium after the club successfully signed Pablo Fornals from Villarreal.
The newspaper claimed that the Hammers were hoping to raise money to help make the signings Pellegrini desires by trying to raise money by selling Pedro Obiang, Jordan Hugill, Sam Byram, Reece Oxford and Martin Samuelsen.
However given that those five players would hardly add much money to the transfer kitty, surely Pellegrini could end up disappointed?
After all the Hammers boss will want three top-quality signings, not just anyone to arrive.
According to the Daily Star, one of the players the Hammers are still trying to sign is Celta Vigo striker Maxi Gomez who has a £44m release clause, and it’s likely he’ll cost close to that amount.
Yet if the Hammers were able to sell Pedro Obiang, Jordan Hugill, Sam Byram, Reece Oxford and Martin Samuelsen it still wouldn’t be enough to get anywhere close to that amount, surely?
Take Hugill and Byram for example.
The pair had unsuccessful loan spells in the Championship last season for different reasons.
Hugill managed only seven goals and two assists in his 42 outings across all competitions while with Middlesbrough, which isn’t exactly good for a forward, and Byram struggled to prove he wasn’t injury prone as he suffered a serious injury and racked up only eight outings while with Nottingham Forest.
So neither of them are going to attract big-money offers.
Then there’s Oxford who didn’t exactly set the world alight in eight outings for Augsburg and Samuelsen who didn’t stand out while playing in the Norwegian league with Haugesund.
So their sales can’t be expected to roll in the cash.
That just leaves Obiang.
While the Spanish midfielder did regularly feature for the Hammers in his 2018/19 campaign, he featured 29 times in his 2018/19 campaign, the 27-year-old’s hardly going to see someone break the bank for him.
So with that in mind, while Pellegrini wants three more signings through the door, if the Hammers are relying on selling those players; he’s either going to be disappointed or he is going to have to find cheaper targets.