Familiar faces are arriving at West Ham, but will their short-termism backfire? | Jacob Steinberg


The club are celebrating ‘a great transfer window’, but Joe Hart, Javier Hernández and Marko Arnautovic may turn out to be sticking plasters in lieu of a real plan

West Ham United are feeling very pleased with themselves at the moment. Relieved, too. After making a spectacular show of themselves in the transfer market last summer, when they started out with hopes of luring Alexandre Lacazette to east London and ended up convincing themselves that Simone Zaza was the answer, this time they have been assertive. In the past fortnight alone they have signed England’s No1 on loan, one of their rivals’ finest talents and a striker who scored 59 goals in 156 games for Manchester United.

Related: West Ham announce club-record signing of Marko Arnautovic from Stoke

Related: Transfer round-up: West Ham seal £16m swoop for Javier Hernández

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