West Ham must learn lessons from Everton’s transfer mistakes

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Manuel Pellegrini has been extremely active in the market ahead of his debut campaign at West Ham but there is room for concern.

The Hammers have spent in excess of £85 million, TransferMarkt figures show, and continue to be linked with a number of further signings before the transfer window slams shut in less than a month – despite already signing seven new faces.

On paper, deals bringing the likes of Felipe Anderson, Jack Wilshere, Lukasz Fabianski and Andriy Yarmolenko to the London Stadium are exciting, particularly following a disappointing few years for the east London side, but problems could emerge.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, former Everton midfielder Leon Osman warned that too many new signings could unbalance the side and pointed to his old employers’ activity in the market last year as evidence to back-up his argument.

“You’ve just got to be careful bringing in all those players in one bunch. I mean, look at Everton last season. We brought so many players in with so much money that everyone expected the season would be fantastic. And it was far from it.”

– Ex-Everton man Leon Osman fires a warning to West Ham.

The situation in modern football means that pre-season predictions are often widely affected by the activity that one side has completed in the market. In those views, more spending = more success but the reality is rather different.

A spending spree for Everton last summer led by Ronald Koeman saw the Toffees splash over £140m on new players, TransferMarkt states, and the new arrivals struggled to settle at Goodison Park, which eventually led to Koeman losing his job and Everton having a season to forget.

Like West Ham’s business, the captures of Jordan Pickford, Michael Keane, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Wayne Rooney and Davy Klaassen looked good on paper but at the end of the campaign it was only really Pickford who could hold his head high.

Pellegrini’s activity at West Ham this summer is eerily similar; an experienced but out-of-form player with Premier League experience (Wilshere/Rooney), exciting attacking additions (Yarmolenko/Klaassen & Anderson/Sigurdsson), a goalkeeper from a relegated club (Fabianski/Pickford) and a free-agent full-back (Ryan Fredericks/Cuco Martina).

Settling all those signings into a new club is extremely challenging as each player will have their own expectations of playing opportunities and their preferred position, coming into a side that still has the likes of Declan Rice, Marko Arnautovic and Pablo Zabaleta to fit into things.

Perhaps the most concerning thing for West Ham is that Pellegrini is showing no signs of ending his attempts to land new recruits. The past week has seen another attacking player in Bernard linked by O Jogo, TuttoMercatoWeb state the Hammers are in the hunt for Genoa’s Diego Laxalt and continued speculation surrounding a potential swoop for Newcastle United captain Jamaal Lascelles.

There is no guarantee that all those reports are genuine but the continued emergence of reported West Ham interest in a number of players suggests evidence that Pellegrini wants to land further additions before the new Premier League season.

The old saying goes that too many cooks spoil the broth and it seems that West Ham are busy assembling a team capable of feeding the 5000.