With West Ham effectively securing Premier League survival thanks to Friday’s 3-1 win over Watford, David Moyes can now start looking to the future.
The Hammers manager has insisted for the past few weeks that he was not planning beyond the end of this season until he knew what West Ham’s top flight status was. Now, despite not mathematically, West Ham are safe bar a freak set of results in the last week of the season.
Moyes’ side are six points clea\r of the drop zone with two games of the season to play, both this week as his side travel to Manchester United on Wednesday then host Aston Villa on the final day on Sunday at London Stadium.
Moyes was spotted at Charlton Athletic’s 2-2 draw with Wigan at the weekend with football.london understanding that the boss holds an interest in Latics left back Antonee Robinson. There have also been reports that Wigan centre back Cedric Kipre is a target too.
The manager then hot-footed from south east to west London to take in QPR’s 4-3 humdinger of a win over Millwall with the Hammers boss reportedly keeping tabs on Rangers star Eberechi Eze and left back Ryan Manning.
Moyes wants to add young, hungry and players eager with a point to prove to his squad and he is clearly targeting the Championship as well. The manager has already raided the second tier when signing Jarrod Bowen from Hull City in January.
But what shirt numbers could be available to the likes of Robinson and Eze should they make the switch to east London?
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9
12
14
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20
27
29
There could be other numbers available later this consumer if the Hammers decide to dispense with the services of some of their players as Moyes plans a rebuild
The likes of Felipe Anderson, Andriy Yarmolenko, Jack Wilshere and Manuel Lanzini could see their futures plunged into doubt, while Moyes is also likely to get rid of back up stopper Roberto.
Moyes doesn’t yet know what kind of budget he will have to play with this summer amid the club injecting £30million into its coffers to keep full time employees off the Government furlough scheme during the coronavirus pandemic.
But there is a general expectation the manager will have to sell if he wants to raise serious funds to try and rebuild the squad after the legacy of Manuel Pellegrini’s expensive 18 months in charge of the club.
