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West Ham legend Tony Cottee has admitted that he is frustrated with the club’s lack of transfer business this summer but sides with David Moyes’ policy of not signing players for the sake of it. 

West Ham have only signed PSG goalkeeper Alphonse Areola on loan this summer, in a position David Moyes already has adequate cover for with Darren Randolph being more than capable of deputising for No.1 Lukasz Fabianski.

With a Europa League campaign on the horizon, the Hammers have at least six more guaranteed fixtures this season, which means there is far more importance on having a squad big enough to rotate regularly, especially before Christmas when the group stage matches are played.

With just one first-team striker, three first-team central midfielders and three experienced centre-backs, Moyes is just one or two injuries away from a bit of a crisis, which has led to a lot of frustration amongst the fanbase as the summer transfer window deadline edges ever closer.

And Tony Cottee, who was a guest on the We Are West Ham Podcast this week, has admitted that he is also frustrated with the lack of transfer activity thus far, and is worried that all the current excitement at the club could come undone if Moyes is unsuccessful in building squad depth before the August 31 transfer deadline.

Cottee said: “I’m frustrated, I think we all are.

“It was an incredible season and you go into this season with that feel-good factor that’s been helped by a great win at Newcastle and it’s going to be there for the first [home] game on Monday night, and we’ve got the European tour to come as well, with hopefully some great fixtures home and away that we can all enjoy and be a part of.

“But, having said all that, we don’t have the squad that’s capable of dealing with all the games at the moment.

“I’m sure it’s something the manager would like to improve. Moyes says all the right things but he also says – and I agree with him – that you don’t want to bring in the wrong type of player. You certainly don’t want to spend the money on a player who might cost £20m or something and then he’s not right, you’ve just bought him because everyone’s clammering for a signing but when he arrives at the club he doesn’t fit in.

“Having said that, I don’t know how much money we’ve got to spend. We’ve had a big hit with [Felipe] Anderson, we’ve had a big hit with [Sebastien] Haller, we’ve had COVID, there’s been a lot of things going on, there’s been no income coming into the football club, so I really don’t know what the situation is with the manager’s transfer budget.”

David Moyes has previously made it clear that he won’t just buy players for the sake of it, evident in the fact he chose not to find a replacement for the departed Sebastien Haller in January, knowing that it would leave him with just Michail Antonio as his only striker option for the second half of the season.

However, Antonio remains the club’s only first-team striker eight months on and there is real worry and frustration amongst the fanbase that, especially with Antonio’s poor fitness record, one injury could seriously jeopardise the superb progress Moyes has made since returning to the club almost two years ago.