West Ham have been one of the Premier League’s biggest spenders this summer
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)David Moyes has praised the West Ham board for the investment in the squad this summer.
The Hammers have spent well over £150m in the transfer window, second only to Chelsea in terms of Premier League spending, with Lucas Paqueta, Gianluca Scamacca and Nayef Aguerd among the big-money arrivals.
Thilo Kehrer was the only new signing to start against Tottenham as West Ham earned their first home point of the season, drawing 1-1 at the London Stadium. The defender turned into his own net as Spurs took the lead, before Tomas Soucek equalised after the break.
The summer spending has gone a long way to addressing the issues Moyes faced last season, competing domestically and in Europe with an incredibly thin squad, and the Hammers boss is grateful to be better equipped this campaign.
“It’s been a really long window,” Moyes said. “The board have been really good and helped me get a lot of talented players. We are still integrating players.
“Hopefully now with Lucas coming in we can start to build and get some positive results.”
On how long it would be until his new signings started to hit top form, Moyes admitted: “I’d love to say only a couple of weeks but it’ll probably take longer for players to get used to each other and start to develop.”
One of those adapting to life at the club is record signing Paqueta, who came off the bench against Tottenham and his introduction was met with huge celebrations from the West Ham supporters.
The Brazilian had a chance to mark his first Hammers showing in style, as the ball was cut back to him in the box late on but a lack of any time with his new team-mates was painfully evident, as he and Emerson Palmieri left the ball for each other.
Ahead of the match Moyes revealed that Paqueta had barely played a pass to most of the West Ham squad, so limited has his involvement in training been, but he is confident that the 25-year-old will prove to be a big hit in east London.
“We monitored him all summer,” Moyes said.
“For most of the summer it didn’t look likely. It was great for us. We needed someone in the number 10 role who can create opportunities.
“He didn’t disappoint today in his short cameo. I’m looking forward to getting him trained and used to us and hopefully he can make a big difference.”
