West Ham United Football Club
Nicknames – The Hammers, The Irons
Best Premier League Finish – 5th (1998/99)
West Ham United can proudly say that they are very much a Premier League side. Often fighting relegation throughout the history of the Premier League, they proved critics wrong by consistently finishing mid table. Despite a one year spell in the championship in the 2011/12 season, they have successfully cemented themselves as a Prem team. West Ham have even briefly graced the Europa League on two occasions.
In recent years, expectations have risen higher and higher and as a result of their somewhat recent success, their transfer fees are starting to truly reflect a Premier League team’s spending.
Top 5 Record Transfer Fees (as of 04/02/19):
- Felipe Anderson – £36 million (From Lazio – July 2018)
- Issa Diop – £22 million (From Toulouse – June 2018)
- Andre Ayew – £20.5 million (From Swansea – August 2016)
- Marko Arnautovic – £20 million (From Stoke City – July 2017)
- Andriy Yarmolenko – £17.5 million * (From Borussia – Dortmund July 2018)
*Reported to be £17.5 million by Sky Sports
(Figures include initial fees in GBP at the time of the transfer, as reported by the BBC unless specified otherwise)
Biggest Flop – Benni McCarthy
£2.5 million in modern football is a drop in the ocean to most clubs, no matter how well the player does. But for a 2010 West Ham side who had just obtained new owners because of certain financial issues the club were facing, every penny counts. As a result, their first signing had to be good value for money. Unfortunately, Benni McCarthy was not. West Ham have an unbelievably bad record for strikers but Benni might just top them. The South African joined in his early thirties, made very little appearances, even fewer starts and scored a grand total of 0 goals. He was even paid in excess of £1 million in a ‘mutual agreement’ upon leaving the club. What a waste of money.
Biggest Bargain – Carlton Cole
For a similar price to the man mentioned above, Cole must seem like an absolute dream. He was West Ham’s top scorer for four years in a row, hitting double figures in each of these, including a promotion winning season to see West Ham return to the Premier League. He fitted in so well at West Ham that bids from other teams seemingly fell on deaf ears and even when he did leave, he re-signed for the Hammers just months later. What a bargain.
Records and Trivia:
- Three of West Ham’s top transfers were made in the 2018 summer window, including the top two fees.
- The Hammers just make the top half of the table in terms of squad value at an impressive £213.15 million
- They also rise to 8th for their clubs highest transfer fee of £36 million for Felipe Anderson.
- Since the ‘new’ owners took over in 2010, West Ham have signed over 30 strikers, 20 of which have failed to score more than three goals.
- Back in 2006, West Ham somehow managed to sign both Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano, both modern greats.
- However, the deal was shrouded in controversy as clubs aren’t allowed to deal with third parties when making signings, these two players were owned by independent organisations.
