The January cash splash
West Ham's recruitment will probably keep them up this season but the future looks concerning
West Ham found themselves heading into the WSL winter break only off the bottom of the table because of goal difference. With only one WSL match won this season, it is hardly surprising that they have moved quickly in the January transfer window to bring in reinforcements. But whilst these moves will likely pay off and help keep West Ham up, it shows a continued lack of foresight from the club.
West Ham have never really embraced the upwardly mobile ideology that other WSL teams have looked to. Sides like Brighton, Tottenham and Aston Villa have had mixed results in their approach to improved WSL success, but they have all made clear attempts over the past couple of years to try and challenge the status quo. How long can a team that seems content with drifting along realistically stay in this league that is constantly pushing the standards?
During the summer, West Ham lost two of their key central defenders as Grace Fisk and Lucy Parker departed for Liverpool and Aston Villa respectively at the end of their contracts. That both these teams had been promoted to the WSL more recently than West Ham tells you something about the ambition the club have managed to show in their six seasons in the top division.
Regardless, neither defender was replaced. Instead Riko Ueki, Jessie Stapleton, Emma Harries and Megan Walsh were brought in. Of the four, only Harries and Walsh had WSL experience although Ueki is a well-established international. West Ham have previously looked to recruit from markets off the beaten track, particularly focusing on Ireland and Japan. The sales of Yui Hasegawa and Katerina Svitkova have shown it has the potential to be a savvy move, but the failure to replace with the same level of experience has led to a young (cheap) team who are struggling to deal with the demands of the league.
The recruitment has also ignored the areas where reinforcements were required. West Ham’s midfield has struggled with the summer departure of the ever reliable Kate Longhurst further exacerbated by the announcement that captain Dagny Brynjarsdottir was pregnant with her second child.
Part of the explanation for the thin recruitment was to do with the appointment of manager Rehanne Skinner. Paul Konchesky left the club on May 28th with Skinner appointed 20th July. The implication is that West Ham wanted to be led by Skinner when it came to recruitment, as opposed to identifying their own targets regardless of who the manager was. But even then they had close to two months with her in position and the transfer window open.
It seems apparent that West Ham see Skinner as a long term answer to the coaching role after a period of upheaval following Matt Beard’s departure. To be fair to the job Skinner is doing, West Ham’s underlying numbers are not bad, regardless of their league position.
In fact, based on their expected goal difference per 90, West Ham are the sixth best team in the league. But this is a strange pattern with Skinner. She had similar issues at Tottenham where despite having fairly mid-table underlying numbers she went on a nine game losing run.
It is hard to pinpoint exactly why Skinner’s teams keep running into these issues. On the one hand it could just be continued bad luck. Neither team she has coached has exactly been blessed with stand out players, ones who can take games by the scruff of the neck. Indeed, Tottenham tried to solve their Skinner issue last January by buying her Bethany England for a British record fee.
Part of the reason Tottenham needed England is potentially another reason behind Skinner’s teams’ regular underperformance. They simply do not create that many good chances. So whilst their expected goal differential is good - they don’t give up many good chances either - there are very narrow margins for error. Opposition teams only need one freak chance to go in to have a good chance of not losing the game. Indeed West Ham have only scored eight goals this season, the fewest in the league.
The decision to lean towards experience in this transfer window feels like the right one. Whilst neither Kristie Mewis nor Katrina Gorry have played in the WSL before, both are massive coups. Shelina Zadorsky has fallen down the pecking order at Tottenham but had excelled under Skinner who will be hoping she can refind her past form.
The Mewis deal obviously has some factors outside of the lure of playing Rehanne-ball in Dagenham. It is helpful when a USA international wants to live in London with her fiancee. And whilst Mewis’ injury record is a bit of a concern, she offers a creativity and confidence that is sorely missing from the West Ham side.
Katrina Gorry is arguably an even better recruit. Gorry showed during the World Cup what an effective midfielder she can be whose experiences in Sweden should leave her well-prepared for the WSL. She has been incredibly reliable in terms of her availability and will complement Mewis well.
The concern if you are a West Ham fan is that this is all a bit ad hoc. There is no doubt that these players will be a big boost to the second half of the season but how long will they actually stay at West Ham? All three are over 30 and Zadorsky is a loan deal. West Ham might stay up this season as a result but the long term goals of the club are unclear. There is the continued issue that they were the only WSL side not to play at least one game in their men’s ground last year and that does not look set to change this year.
The sad reality seems to be that unless something drastic changes in the way the club is run, they are simply staving off the inevitability of relegation.