2015-2022: They signed, they arrived, they didn't really feature XI

Mistryman

Roofer
Excluding loan signings, this is what it looks like (a couple of forced wing-backs, but workable!). More than £150m....!

GK: Jakupovic (c.£2m)
CD: Hernandez (free)
CD: Benkovic (£13m)
CD: Benalouane (£6m)
DM: Inler (£3m)
CM: Silva (£22m)
RWB: Kapustka (£7.5m)
LWB: Musa (£16.6m)
S: Slimani (£28m)
S: Kramaric (£9m)

Subs: Zieler (c.£3m), Lawrence (£1m), Iborra (£13.5m), Diabate (£1.8m), Ghezzal (£12.6m), Praet (possibly) (£21.6m)

Anyone missed out?
 
I've left Praet out.
A very rough estimate is £125.5m spent and £62.12m recouped.
Drinkwater and Schlupp helped out with this loss.
Maguire paid for the training ground.
 
What’s often forgotten are the wages too. £10’s of millions. Slim was on apparently £80k/week for his 5 year contract. Whilst we recouped some by loaning him out, that’s £20m!! Benkovic was apparently on £30k/week. So his 5 year contract taking into consideration we’ve paid him off is I’d suggest £7m! Never played one game!
It’s an expensive game being a PL owner.
 
Excluding loan signings, this is what it looks like (a couple of forced wing-backs, but workable!). More than £150m....!

GK: Jakupovic (c.£2m)
CD: Hernandez (free)
CD: Benkovic (£13m)
CD: Benalouane (£6m)
DM: Inler (£3m)
CM: Silva (£22m)
RWB: Kapustka (£7.5m)
LWB: Musa (£16.6m)
S: Slimani (£28m)
S: Kramaric (£9m)

Subs: Zieler (c.£3m), Lawrence (£1m), Iborra (£13.5m), Diabate (£1.8m), Ghezzal (£12.6m), Praet (possibly) (£21.6m)

Anyone missed out?
Would probably make Ward GK given he cost £12m 4 years ago and still hasn’t made a single league appearance.
 
I'm guessing with amortisation of fees and wages over the whole contract, that these "bad" recruitments have been as expensive as they seem.
 
It's a difficult business for any club, and it's perhaps unavoidable to have a certain percentage of deals / players that don't really come off. I think if you manage to achieve a positive balance overall you've done well.
 
TV commentaters are always drooling on about our ability to find promising unknowns and turn them into high value players, they seem to have not done their due diligence and mentioned these cash cows.
 
It's because the failures have only cost as much as the sales of Drinkwater and Maguire.
In the meantime we've picked up three domestic trophies.
 
Someone on here linked an article a couple of months ago, listing all the strikers that West Ham had tried over the same sort of time period. I forget the exact details but I seem to recall there were 20 odd names on the list and a grand return of about 55 goals.

Now there's a club that has 'kissed a lot of frogs...'.
 
Isn't it a good sign? Part of the process of finding somebody a bit better than the current occupant of any position which in turn is part of a gradual upgrade collectively.
It's a sign that the club is always looking for that better player at the level necessary to improve our competitiveness.
And it is working. When I were a lad every season ended with our best player being sold to balance the books and a lower cost replacement arriving. Result? Years of treading water. Now if we lose any particular player the ship carries on.
Those not good enough serve a purpose and hopefully speak well of the club and have made a few bob..
 
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