Bleak winter ahead after West Ham ‘overspent’ in summer

Slaven Bilic: Hoping for happy farewell to Upton Park

Slaven Bilic: Hoping for happy farewell to Upton Park

West Ham “overspent” in the summer and are unlikely to spend in January, according to the son of owner David Sullivan.

The Hammers spent over £34million in the summer with the arrivals of Dimitri Payet (£11.9million), Angelo Ogbonna (£8million), Michail Antonio (£7million), Nikica Jelavic (£3million) and Pedro Obiang (£4.3million), but a raft of injuries have left the club short of options.

Payet, Manuel Lanzini, Diafra Sakho, Victor Moses and Winston Reid are all on the sidelines through injury, but hopes of an injection of options in the January window have been dashed by Jack Sullivan.

Sullivan, who is chair of the youth supporters’ group and who also writes a column for the club’s website, said there was little room to strengthen in January after a net spend of £26.9million in the summer.

A fan tweeted Jack, asking: “Do we still have a sizeable budget for January?”

Jack replied: “No the club’s going to lose a lot of money this year. We over spent in the summer!”

Sullivan was also asked “if you could have one player from any Premier League club who would it be? And why?”

Sullivan suggested Liverpool full-back Nathaniel Clyne, because “we don’t have a right-back next year”.