West Ham may only have a transfer budget of £30m in the summer, before player sales, according to recent reports.
The Hammers are likely to sell a number of players to supplement Manuel Pellegrini’s transfer plans, but it is still a low number for a Premier League team.
Fans on Twitter have been speculating why the figure is so low:
What happened to the stadium taking the squad to the next level. £30 million is a joke of a budget. Arnie’s evaluation has hit rock bottom and luck to get £20 million for him now..
— Chris Helwig (@chelwig54) 22 April 2019
Back to normal then! A big clearout is needed but that’s unlikely to bring in huge sums of money. The likes of Leicester, Wolves, Everton will all invest more than us again so will move further ahead. Guess we’ll have to all settle for avoiding relegation then as next level ??
— William Field (@wilfield71) 22 April 2019
Surely the 30m’s gotta be a bluff right? I mean they said it was 20m a couple of weeks ago, hopefully if it keeps on going up, by May it will be 60-70m plus player sales
— Elliot Tyler (@ElliotTyler11) 22 April 2019
Well get 9 from fiorentina for fernandes. Plus 5 for hugil from a desperate championship side. About 10 for Hernandez. what ever for arnie as long as hes sold. Dont want him my team hes a parasite. Still who knows what will happen. Well have to wait and see?⚒
— tracey andrews (@lemlem75) 22 April 2019
Clearly they will sell Rice to raise funds
— Mark Bain (@markbain1) 22 April 2019
First bit of business , sort out the middle of the park. We need at least two players in there. I am sure we will still get 30m for Arnie, 5m Oxford 15m chic . Plus big money off the books on Carroll . Onwards and upwards ⚒️
— ToneHammer (@tone_hammer) 23 April 2019
Pathetic.
— Ali Jones (@Alibones2) 22 April 2019
Don’t forget player sales mate. We’ll probably have 80m plus overall
— Billy⚒??????? (@billy__whufc) 23 April 2019
???? we are moving forward ?
— kevthehammersuddell (@kevin_suddell) 23 April 2019
West Ham spent £99m in the transfer window last summer, recouping only £11m in sales, so a repeat of that sort of spending was always going to be unlikely.
However, with the club expected to finish midtable, fans would have liked to see the Hammers try and push on next campaign, but the drop from a net transfer spend of £88m to just £30m is a massive step down, leading many to question the London club’s ambitions.
Whether the number is in fact far higher than that, we shall have to wait and see, but for the time being, many supporters are not optimistic heading into the summer.