David Moyes has warned Chelsea that their latest summer spending spree comes with no guarantee of success - pointing to West Ham’s own struggles after their overhaul 12 months ago.
The two sides meet in the Premier League at the London Stadium on Sunday, when new British transfer record signing Moises Caicedo could be among several Blues debutants after his £115million move from Brighton was finally confirmed at the start of the week.
On Friday, Chelsea also announced the arrival of fellow midfielder Romeo Lavia from Southampton in a £58m switch that takes their spending across the three transfer windows since Todd Boehly and Clearlake’s takeover to within sight of the £1billion mark.
However, similar injections of cash both last summer and in January failed to spark an upturn in results on the pitch, with the Blues finishing 12th in a disastrous 2022/23 campaign, and Moyes is not daunted at the prospect of taking on Mauricio Pochettino’s expensively-assembled side.
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“They spent a lot of money last year as well and it didn’t necessarily work for them,” Moyes said. “It doesn’t always mean that spending money guarantees you success.
“Chelsea are entitled to work the way they do, they’ve done their own thing for many, many years and been incredibly successful. I’m guessing they’re trying to be successful again, they’ve signed a lot of really talented players.”
West Ham made eight signings last summer and Moyes regularly blamed the transition for his side’s sluggish start to the campaign, which left the Hammers battling relegation well into the New Year before a late upturn in form saw them comfortably beat the drop.
Even after a major clearout already this summer, Chelsea currently have 34 first-team players listed in their squad and Moyes says the twin challenges of integrating the new arrivals while managing a bloated group will be providing major headaches for his opposite number Pochettino.
“We had it last year and when we signed a lot of players,” Moyes added. “It doesn’t always work in your favour because it takes time for people to settle in, to get used to other players who are new to them as well.
“Bringing in these players will give Chelsea a better and stronger squad but they did that last year as well and in many ways it didn’t work, they probably had too many players.
“That’s a problem for the coaches as well, if you’ve got too many players it causes you different sorts of problems behind the scenes. It’s never good for any manager to have far too many players.”
West Ham have so far made only two signings this summer, bringing in James Ward-Prowse and Edson Alvarez to reinforce the midfield after Declan Rice’s move to Arsenal.
Moyes was tight-lipped on ongoing negotiations for Stuttgart defender Konstantinos Mavropanos and Ajax midfielder Mohammed Kudus but confirmed the club are working to add to their squad this summer.
The Hammers had a £30m bid for Manchester United’s Harry Maguire accepted last week but the Scot confirmed that move has since collapsed.
“We did make an offer for Harry Maguire but at the end we’ve not been able to take it any further,” he said. “That’s unfortunate.
“Players at other clubs, we’re looking at several but I’m not going to name them or talk about them.
“Yes, I do, yeah [expect more business]. Yes, it would matter [if West Ham made no more signings] but you have to expect that sometimes that might be the case. You have to live with it, but we’re trying to add to it, yes.”
Moyes remained coy on the latest reports over Manchester City’s pursuit of West Ham midfielder Lucas Paqueta being supposedly put on hold.
“I can’t shed any light on it,” he said. “I admitted last week that there had been an enquiry from Manchester City but I’ve got no more to add to that at this moment in time.”
One player training with West Ham at the moment is former loan star Jesse Lingard, who is trying to build up his fitness as he searches for a new club after being released by Nottingham Forest earlier in the summer. A potential full-time return to the Hammers for the former Manchester United and England midfielder has been mooted, but Moyes says that is not under consideration as things stand.
“We’ve not even considered a deal at the moment,” he said. “He’s in training to see if we can get him back fit and get him in decent condition. He’ll be back here next week as well.
“There’s no news on that as far as short-term deals or anything else. Jesse’s a good player, probably needing to get himself in the correct condition. We’re working on him, all players tend to need four or five weeks pre-season and Jesse’s no different from anybody else.”
