If there was one thing that West Ham appeared to be missing during their 2022/23 Premier League season, it was creativity.
Despite having the likes of Lucas Paqueta and Pablo Fornals in their squad, the Hammers huffed and puffed for long periods of the campaign.
Indeed, David Moyes’ ‘safety first’ way of playing seemed to drain any sort of spontaneity out of West Ham’s general play.
At times they were functional and at others they were totally disastrous, and at no time did they look like they were going to carve teams apart via the ‘West Ham way.’
That would surely have been a huge disappointment to a fan base that had watched their team get to the Europa League semi-finals, only to fall at the final hurdle to Eintracht Frankfurt.
Despite all of that, the Irons have still managed to haul themselves to this season’s Europa Conference League final and they may yet be able to enter next season’s Europa League via the back door of an ECL final victory.
Even if they fail to win their first European final in 47 years, the Hammers need to strengthen their squad fairly significantly if they don’t want to find themselves battling relegation again at the back end of the 2023/24 campaign.
One player who would certainly improve their side is Southampton’s James Ward-Prowse, and journalist, Paul Brown, believes signing him would be a no brainer for the east Londoners.
“I don’t think anyone should be too concerned by the fact that Southampton went down. I think he gave them everything. He’s a dead ball specialist, he’ll bring that to West Ham too,” he told Give Me Sport.
“I think he’s the kind of player that West Ham need. I think it’s a no-brainer for them to do that deal. If it’s £40m? Bite your hands off.”
If the Saints are willing to get rid of their star man for £40m, it really would represent a bargain for whomever was lucky enough to buy him.
Aside from his natural creativity and work-rate, his dead-ball skills are peerless.