Manuel Pellegrini must stop yearning for the Premier League stars of yesteryear

The past few weeks have been slightly underwhelming for West Ham fans after losing to Cardiff, then being pushed all the way by relegated Huddersfield before losing to Everton and Chelsea. Everyone’s worst fears about limping into May have come true with the club seemingly at a loss for motivation with the players eyeing up the approaching summer holiday.

It’s not just on the pitch where the Hammers seem flat, that theme has carried on into Manuel Pellegrini’s press conferences as well. Speaking before the trip to Old Trafford, the Chilean was anything but a barrel of laughs as he claimed that the European positions had never been a target during this campaign, and the only thing he had asked of his team was to have ‘an ambitious mentality' this season. Good to know.


More frustratingly, the 65-year-old confessed that signing Samir Nasri in January was always going to be a risk given that he hadn’t played for 18 months after being banned for a doping violation. Pellegrini seems to suggest the muscle injuries that Nasri has suffered from, which have restricted him to just six appearances for the Hammers, isn’t something that has surprised him in the least.

In essence, what Pellegrini is saying is that he expected Nasri to battle injury throughout his short stay with West Ham. Naturally, this begs the question, why did he sign him then?

Still, this isn’t enough for Pellegrini to rule out trying to tie Nasri down to a longer deal at the London Stadium with the West Ham boss simply saying, “we will see at the end of the season.”

Surely the time has home for the Chilean to stop throwing good money after bad on players who can’t get through a full season for the club. Jack Wilshere and Samir Nasri have a combined weekly wage of £180,000 a week but have managed only 11 appearances between them this season.

There are far more reliable players out there that would cost a fraction of the price who could make West Ham a much better team if only they were being sought after instead of the once big name players, who frankly, have very little to offer these days, and are a crippling drain on the club's resources.

Bringing in young and emerging players has paid serious dividends for West Ham’s London rivals. You only have to look at what Spurs have done, signing Dele Alli for £5m from MK Dons, Christian Eriksen for £11.5m and Kieran Trippier for £3.5m.

If you needed any proof that this well thought out and logical transfer policy works, then consider Spurs are 4/1 in the Champions League final odds to make it all the way to Madrid whilst West Ham will battle it out for 11th place in the Premier League.


West Ham have the means to bring in very good players but their transfer blueprint needs to be completely overhauled with a new approach adopted. Unfortunately, Pellegrini’s fondness for the Premier League stars of yesteryear is severely hamstringing West Ham in every department. Ideally, it would be favourable to change the policy and not the man but in this situation, it doesn’t look like you can have one without the other.


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