After the high of winning the Europa Conference League, there’s sure to be a come down for a few West Ham United players.
That’s because David Moyes needs to set about improving his Hammers squad for their Premier League and Europa League campaigns in 2023/24, and some players just aren’t up to the task. Not only that, but captain Declan Rice is also expected to move on to pastures new.
It can’t be forgotten that, until late in the season, the east Londoners were perilously close to slipping into the relegation dog fight, and to that end, improvements in the first team must be made.
Alongside Rice, there are five other players that are expected to depart the London stadium.
According to Claret and Hugh they are Gianluca Scamacca, Ben Johnson, Manuel Lanzini, Jamal Baptiste and Mipo Odubeko.
Much was expected of Scamacca, but in truth the Italian never really hit the heights for the east Londoners.
WhoScored note his paltry return of four goals, but a perceived lack of work rate and the belief that he went to watch Roma when West Ham had a Europa Conference League game to play on the same night are other issues that won’t have endeared him to Moyes.
Given the expected number of departures, it’s clear that the Hammers are going to have to work well in the transfer market in order to ensure that the replacements coming in are of sufficient quality to improve them rather than just being players to fill squad gaps.
We should keep Lanzini, he is a tremendous player who is skillful and reads the game so well. What happens if Paquetta gets injured, where does our midfield creativity come from? Scamacca could be a great player but we don’t play to his strengths, instead we chuck balls forward to bounce off Antonio’s bum which we did all last season and escaped relegation by the skin of our teeth.
Antonio spends too much time on the ground. just a matter of time before he starts getting red cards for it.
Once again Westham don’t have a senior striker if the rumors are true , Scamacca and Antonio leaving and Ings on the sofa . Westham should not sell or loan Scamacca or Antonio . What’s worse than strikers under performing is not having strikers at all . There is a Fair Play limit to the funds available and so Westham should extend contracts to all existing players considering that they will play 55-60 games again next season and so need a big experienced squad in order to compete successfully .
I reckon keep Lanzini but let Scamacca go. Doesn’t seem to have his head in West Ham space. I’d be keeping Antonio & possibly Ings for another 12 months then review unless we can get a top class replacement for Scamacca. Of the others Cresswell & Ogbonna are in twilight but I’d keep both for another 12 months & I think Cresswell has agreed an extension anyway.