West Ham were one of the biggest buyers in the summer 2024 transfer window, acquiring talent at all levels – defense, midfield, and attack – in an effort to support new manager Julen Lopetegui.
The Hammers were especially aggressive in pursuing attacking upgrades after a 2023/24 Premier League season in which they were ravaged by front-line injuries in the second half of the season, leading to some of the league’s least inspiring football under doomed manager David Moyes.
Niclas Fullkrug joined the party at striker after a strong season for Champions League finalists Borussia Dortmund, Carlos Soler was a smart flier on the cheap from PSG, and Crysencio Summerville was a big get for the future on the left wing from Leeds.
To this early point in the 2024/25 Premier League season, West Ham have yet to truly see the dividends from their summer moves. They sit a disappointing 14th in the Premier League, but, of course, they knew it would take time for the new faces to gel with a new coach, too.
The problem is West Ham don’t have a single player with multiple assists through six matchdays, and their only player with multiple goals is a grizzled veteran defensive midfielder, Tomas Soucek.
West Ham still need to complete their attacking overhaul, and they need to start thinking about selling players who have a positive history at the club but aren’t contributing positively right now.
Michail Antonio comes to mind. He has started five games this season for West Ham with no goals and a WhoScored rating of 6.21, which is downright ghastly for an attacking player.
At 34, Antonio is well past his prime, and he is no longer the chaos-creating striker he was a few years ago who could score double-digit goals in a Premier League season and be a handful to defenders.
Now, Antonio is a subpar striker whose veteran guile is undermined by an overall lack of quality. If West Ham want to qualify for European football again, then they are going to need to do it with younger, more clinical strikers who can offer the club greater quality than Antonio
Fullkrug is another signing who will likely fail at striker and isn’t what is required, but it will be easier to sell Antonio in a 2025 transfer window than to axe Fullkrug a year after blowing around 30 million euros on him.
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The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. His work has been featured in ESPN, Bleacher Report, Yahoo! Sports, NBC Sports, and other major outlets. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.