David Moyes ‘hopeful’ of new signings as West Ham launch transfer bids for January reinforcements

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Jack Rosser @JackRosser_14 January 2022

David Moyes has revealed that West Ham have started making moves in the January transfer widow.

The Hammers are keen to add a striker and defender this month and, according to Moyes, have already made a number of offers for players and that the board are supportive of his attempts to add to the squad.

It is almost a year since Sebastien Haller was sold to Dutch side Ajax leaving Michail Antonio as the club’s only senior striker, meaning Moyes has had very restricted options when the 31-year-old has struggled for form or fitness.

A season-ending ACL injury for Angelo Ogbonna has also forced the Scot to revise his January plans and look for a central defender to maintain West Ham’s remarkable Champions League push.

Moyes had hoped to bring Manchester United’s Jesse Lingard back on a permanent basis after his stellar loan spell last season, though the England international would prefer to run down his contract at Old Trafford and move as a free agent in the summer. Blackburn’s Ben Brereton Diaz is being tracked, while Liverpool defender Nathaniel Phillips has been considered.

Moyes has a fine record in the transfer window since his return to east London, but signings have often arrived in the final days of the window.

"I think sometimes you need things to come, [they] take a bit of time to come to fruition," said Moyes.

"We’re asking about players and other clubs that are trying to get them are asking about players and it is taking a bit of time for things, the domino affect to really happen.

"We’ve made some offers behind the scenes for players, we’ve tried to look at situations so it’s not as if we’re not doing it at the moment.

"You just need to look around football and see that there’s not a lot of deals happening at the moment. The general feeling is that it is a bit tougher for whatever reason that may be. I’m hopeful we can pull something off."

Given West Ham’s rise into the Premier League’s top four and the success of signings such as Lingard and Kurt Zouma, Moyes feels the Hammers are now an attractive prospect for potential signings.

He said: "I think West Ham is an appealing club, a London club, we are certainly more appealing now than we have been for a long time and the job is to keep that going and to try to add to it.

"I am really keen to add to it, the board are with me they want to add as well they are they’re very supportive. So it’s actually trying to identify the right players and bring in players who we would really like to bring here and go on the rest of the journey so we will keep looking and hopefully something will appear for us in the last couple of weeks.”

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