West Ham United have had more than their share of busy transfer windows over the past few seasons and plans are likely well underway at the London Stadium for the next two.
There are just a handful of Premier League matches remaining before the winter break for the FIFA World Cup finals and then there will be just two gameweeks over the festive period before the January transfer window opens. Once the 2022/23 season has concluded, clubs will once again go back to the drawing boards and look at how best to reshape their squads in the months long summer window. It’s a process where transfers planned out months in advance can be made or last minute deals can be struck on deadline day.
Just for fun, we use the newly released beta version of Football Manager 23 to simulate up until September 1, 2023 and have taken a look at what business the popular game series predicts West Ham might do over the summer transfer window. The Hammers spent over £70m in transfer fees and central defence was the area of the park they looked most eager to recruit in. There were also some real coups as the London side managed to bring in talented players on free transfers and loans with little to know additional fee.
Here are the players that West Ham signed in our FM23 simulation and how much they paid:
1. Merih Demiral (£21m)
The Tunisian defender was the biggest summer signing for the Hammers, arriving at the Hammers from Serie A side Atalanta
2. Josip Sutalo (£17.25m)
Sutalo had spent his entire senior career with Dinamo in hi native Croatia before the central defender made the move to London Stadium
3. Arkadiusz Milik (£15.75m)
Polish striker Milik had a mediocre loan spell at Juventus, scoring twice in 17 league games, and West Ham were able to snap him up for just over £15m from OM
4. Mujaid Sadick (£15.25m)
A Spanish youth international, who also qualifies for Ghana and Nigeria, Sadick is another central defender to partner Demrial/Sutalo and arrived from KRC Genk