In Julen Lopetegui’s first summer in charge, West Ham United spent around £120.3m on eight permanent deals and two loan signings.
In order to fund this, they did have to make a few sales, shopping on eight players -including Flynn Downes and Said Benrahma – for a collective haul of £37.2m.
Max Kilman
£40m
Crysencio Summerville
£24.4m
Niclas Füllkrug
£22.5m
Luis Guilherme
£19.1m
Aaron Wan-Bissaka
£14.6m
Guido Rodriguez
£0
Wes Foderingham
£0
Mohamadou Kante
?
The big signing of the summer was Max Kilman, signing from Wolves for a fee of around £40m. The 27-year-old played under Lopetegui at Molineux and has been ever-present in the side this season, making 13 appearances, providing one assist, and contributing to three clean sheets in his 1,170 minutes on the field.
The Hammers also acquired Carlos Soler and Jean-Clair Todibo on loan deals, but perhaps the most exciting deal for fans this summer was the addition of last season’s Championship Player of the Year, who they thought could bring real flair and creation to their attacking ranks.
Crysencio Summerville at West Ham
The 23-year-old Crysencio Summerville joined from Leeds in the summer, having just scored 21 goals and provided ten assists in 49 games last season. This saw him crowned the very best player in the division as Leeds narrowly missing out on promotion, losing the play-off final 1-0.
But Summerville has struggled to find his way into the West Ham side on a regular basis, making 12 appearances, but only totalling 507 minutes, just managing one goal.
The Dutch winger has only started three of the 11 Premier League games, coming from the bench on seven occasions.
So, West Ham look to replace Summerville already, as they look to improve the squad and add more creation in attacking areas. With a slow start from Mohammed Kudus too – scoring just twice and being sent off – adding more goal output is necessary.
West Ham's Summerville upgrade
According to reports in Spain (via Football365), West Ham are interested in bringing AC Milan attacker, Christian Pulisic, back to the Premier League having left Chelsea to join AC Milan in 2023.
Paulo Fonseca has praised Pulisic’s performances this season, labelling the USA international as “fantastic”, following his red-hot start to the season, scoring seven goals and providing five assists in 15 appearances, totalling 1,169 minutes.
The 26-year-old winger has, of course, played in England already, making 145 appearances for Chelsea, scoring 26 goals and providing 19 assists.
His best season for the Blues came under Frank Lampard, netting nine Premier League goals in 25 games during the 2019/20 season. In the words of NBC commentator, Arlo White, he was “borderline unplayable” at times.
But, in the present, how does he compare to Summerville? Well, you can see from the metrics below that the American is heavily outperforming the Hammers’ summer signing so far this season.
Goals
0.54
0.18
Assists
0.31
0.00
xG
0.33
0.24
xAG
0.29
0.16
Progressive Carries
4.42
2.89
Progressive Passes
4.50
1.84
Shots Total
1.86
1.40
Key Passes
2.71
1.84
Shot-Creating Actions
4.73
3.68
Successful Take-Ons
0.93
1.32
Not only does the former Chelsea ace have a better goal and assist rate, but he’s significantly better in one-on-one situations, notably delivering a far higher rate of progressive carries, getting his team up the field in a more efficient manner. He’s certainly more creative too with those key passes and progressive passes standing out.
A pass is considered progressive if the distance between the starting point and the next touch is at least 10 meters closer to the opponent’s goal or any completed pass into the penalty area.
Thus, if the Hammers could pull off a move for the USA superstar, it could help propel them up the table, and release the burden from the likes of Jarrod Bowen for output.
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