David Moyes
David Moyes has said he is not confident West Ham will sign a striker before the end of the summer transfer window. Asked directly how confident he was West Ham will sign a striker this summer
David Moyes said: “I wouldn’t say I’m overly confident. But I think that’s mainly due to the availability. It’s not that West Ham don’t want to sign a striker, or that I don’t want to buy one or the owners don’t want to buy one. It’s more to do with the availability. I don’t want to bring players to the club who are not going to be valuable. I could tick a box and sign a centre-forward which the media or everybody else would accept, maybe even the supporters. But I’m only going to bring players who I think will offer something to this team. I could sign a centre-forward but I’m trying to find one who I think will contribute, make a difference, help us and finding that at the right value, as well as having good statistical numbers, isn’t that easy.”
If West Ham are not able to add a striker this transfer window the pressure on Antonio to provide the goals his team needs will be huge. Moyes has every confidence in Antonio and the entire Hammers squad going into the season even if there are no further arrivals at the London Stadium.
David Moyes said: “I am full of confidence in the players I have got. We had a really small squad last year, it is smaller than when we finished last year but overall I trust every one of the players I am putting out at the moment. We had to use them all in the run-in last year, different ones had to come in at different times and none of them let us down. I’ve got full faith in all the players and what they can bring to the team.”
Along with talk about a new signing Moyes was asked if Jesse Lingard was likely to rejoin West Ham and how close the club were to bringing in Nikola Milenkovic from Fiorentina. On both occasions the manager declined to comment directly on the player,
David Moyes said: “I never talk about players at other clubs because it is not what you do when you are a manager. We are trying to add to the squad if we can. We’ve had and we’ve got some offers in for people but not everything is coming to fruition. We’ll do our best to add to the squad before the close of the window.”
The Hammers currently have just Michail Antonio in their squad as a recognised Premier League striker with Mipo Odubeko yet to make his league debut and Jarrod Bowen predominately a wide attacking player. Whilst Antonio has proven himself to be a top-quality Premier League striker the 31-year-old is renowned for picking up injuries. With European football added to West Ham’s calendar the workload will be a huge ask for the striker should another forward not arrive at the club.
