West Ham needs a ruthless rebuild, writes Iain Dale |
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There’s no point in dwelling on what might have been. We got the third-worst points total of any team in the Premier League. Of course, we can all look at games where we could have got more, either because VAR went against us or for plenty of other reasons. But what is the point? Everyone, including the fanbase, needs to get the pain out of our system and look to the future.
The next three months will be dominated by speculation about which players will leave and which players will be incoming. So let’s look at our current squad and analyse who is likely to stay, who we’d actually want to stay, and who will inevitably leave.
One positive point to make before we go into that is that we have plenty of youth players ready to step up to the first team, and many of them will get their opportunities, given the parlous state of the club’s finances.
Mohamedou Kante, Ezra Myers, Olly Scarles and Freddie Potts are all likely to be first-team starters from August, with George Earthy, Airdas Golambeckis, Preston Fearon, Lewis Orford, Josh Ayala, Josh Landers and Kaelan Casey all knocking on a door that is more than ajar. I’m almost salivating at the prospect of at least two of those making it big.
Three players who will definitely be leaving are Calum Wilson, Adama Traore and Axel Disasi. Disasi will return to Chelsea. I’d love to think we could keep him, and if we were still in the Premier League, there would have been a good prospect of that, but not now we’re in the Championship. Traore and Wilson were on short term contracts and neither is likely to want to play in the second league.
So let’s look at the rest of the first team squad.
Mads Hermansen has done well since he managed to oust Alfonse Areola, but he is still not a goalkeeper who inspires confidence. He cost a lot of money (£15million), which is unlikely to be recouped if he were sold. Areola won’t want to be on the bench in the Championship and will probably be sold to a European club. Lukasz Fabianski will also surely finally retire, after not being fit for most of the season after his return. We have a surfeit of youth team keepers, two of whom will fancy their chances of at least being the number two. Finlay Herrick and Krisztian Heygi are in the driving seat, but Mason Terry is making waves too.
SELL: Hermandsen, Areola, Fabianski
RETAIN: Heygi, Herrick, Terry
Despite what the ridiculous Jamie Carragher was saying yesterday, I still think El Hadj Malick Diouf is the best crosser of the ball in British football. Yes, he needs to look up more and yes, he has made his fair share of defensive errors, but he will be hot property this summer. He will undoubtedly be sold, and I would hope he would fetch around £30 million. So that leaves the way open for Olly Scarles and Ezra Mayers to fight it out to start the season as first-choice left back. There’s also Emeke Adiele, who seems to score goals for fun in the Under-21s.
On the other side, Aaron Wan-Bissaka had a very disappointing season for the man who was Hammer of the Year in the 2024-25 season. No way will he stay, and he will be sold for a very decent profit on the £15 million we forked out for him two years ago.
Kyle Walker-Peters is, without doubt, a decent right back and never lets you down. He’s unflashy, but also lacks pace. He’s also been relegated two seasons running. He joined us on a free transfer a year ago on a three-year deal,........