West Ham reap benefit of right recruitment
A worrying weekend for Fulham was made worse by the obvious and troubling contrast between their struggling summer recruits and West Ham United’s match-winning signings. Both sides spent around £100million, but only one of these teams is starting to reap the rewards of that investment.
The performances on Saturday of Felipe Anderson and Issa Diop, two of West Ham’s most significant arrivals, underlined how easily a team can be improved by the right recruitment. By contrast, the difficulties of the likes of Alfie Mawson, Andre Schurrle and Jean Michael Seri showed what happens when those big-money gambles do not pay off.
Fulham have lacked the solidity that West Ham have discovered in Diop, a £22 million signing from Toulouse, and on Saturday they had no attackers as devilish as Anderson, the £36million Brazilian who is improving at a startling rate.
There are structural issues behind all this, of course. And it would perhaps be too simplistic to say that Claudio Ranieri’s side would have won the game if Diop and Anderson were wearing white instead of £96.2m 11
Felipe Anderson (Lazio, £36m), Issa Diop (Toulouse, £22m), Andriy Yarmolenko (Dortmund, £17.5m). £110m 12
A-F Zambo Anguissa (Marseille, £30m),
JM Seri (Nice, £25m), Aleksandar Mitrovic (Newc, £22m).
claret. But what cannot be argued is that Fulham’s new signings are still trying to adjust, while West Ham’s are now beginning to define matches at both ends of the pitch.
Anderson, in particular, is looking more dangerous with each passing week. He was behind both of West Ham’s goals at Craven Cottage, scored by Robert Snodgrass and Michail Antonio, and that clubrecord fee is looking more reasonable with each explosive dribble or cunning pass.
“I don’t like to think of the money they cost,” said Manuel Pellegrini, the West Ham manager, of Anderson. “I think those evaluations must be made at the end of the season.
“He is 25 years old and I think he will continue improving. Maybe at the end of the season he will be a cheap player.”
Anderson’s form also tells the story of West Ham’s season. Like his team-mates, he struggled at the start of the campaign, when they lost their first four fixtures. But he has grown used to the demands of the Premier League and has been the key figure in this run of four consecutive victories. With fixtures against Watford, Southampton, Burnley and Brighton up next, West Ham can realistically hope to end the calendar year with their sights set on a European place.
“I think that the players always believed from the first game in what we were doing,” Pellegrini said. “During pre-season we worked in one way and when we didn’t have a great start we continued saying exactly the same and working the same way. I never felt like they had any doubts in their worst moments. Now, with good results, of course they trust in this. They are improving a lot, especially Issa Diop because he is a very young player. I am happy with the squad more than individual names. To be in this position in the table when we started [so badly] is not easy and that belongs to the whole squad.”
The worry for Fulham, who remain at the foot of the table, is that there has been little sign of improvement in the month since Ranieri replaced Slavisa Jokanovic. Forthcoming fixtures against Newcastle United and Huddersfield Town, in particular, represent opportunities to kick-start their season before it is too late.