West Ham United — what to expect
Squad gaps, expiring contracts and how much room the books leave for spending. Refreshed automatically as Companies House filings and squad data update.
The midfield has been hollowed out. West Ham moved on both Lucas Paquetá and James Ward-Prowse in January, and what's left is a unit of just 5 players covering the entire central area. That's thin for a Premier League side at any point in the season, let alone heading into a summer rebuild. Mateus Fernandes arrived last August, but the squad depth there remains a serious concern.
The numbers elsewhere tell a more balanced story, though not an entirely comfortable one. There are 9 defenders, which is reasonable, and 7 forwards gives them options in attack. But that midfield figure of 5 stands out badly. Two of those forward spots are occupied by Adama Traoré and Callum Wilson, both of whom are out of contract in June 2026. Keiber Lamadrid is in the same boat. Lose all three without adequate replacements and a reasonably stocked forward line starts to look stretched fast.
On the contract front, the risk runs beyond the forwards. Axel Disasi, only brought in on loan in February, expires in June 2026 alongside Łukasz Fabiański. Disasi's situation will need resolving quickly if West Ham see him as part of the long-term defensive picture. Fabiański has 3 senior goalkeepers on the books, so his departure would leave cover intact, but it still needs managing.
Financially, the picture demands caution. The wage bill sits at £173.3m against a turnover of £226.1m, a wages-to-turnover ratio of 76.7%. That's high. The net debt of £3.5m is manageable in isolation, but the club posted a loss of £108.3m in the period to May 2025. That's a figure that shapes everything. There isn't room to splash freely, and PSR obligations will be a constant background pressure. Any significant incoming will likely require sales to balance the books first.
Given all of that, the priority should be a proven, established central midfielder with Premier League experience. Not a project, not a loan filler. Someone who can start week in, week out and immediately reduce the reliance on a threadbare engine room. That's the signing that would make the most difference.
Squad shape
- Goalkeepers3
- Defenders9
- Midfielders5
- Forwards7
Out of contract within 12 months
- Adama Traoré attacker 2026-06-30
- Lukasz Fabianski goalkeeper 2026-06-30
- Callum Wilson attacker 2026-06-30
- Keiber Lamadrid attacker 2026-06-30
- Axel Disasi defender 2026-06-30
- Tomáš Souček midfielder 2027-06-30
- Alphonse Areola goalkeeper 2027-06-30
Finance headroom
- Turnover
- £226m
- Wage bill
- £173m
- Wages / turnover
- 76.7%
- Net debt
- £3.5m
- As at
- 2025-05-31
How this guide is put together
Squad counts come from the live first-team list pulled from Sportmonks. Contract dates are the registration end-dates filed by clubs through the football authorities. Finance figures are the latest audited accounts at Companies House.
The narrative paragraphs are written by Claude from that data, with a strict instruction not to invent figures. Editorial overrides any auto-generated piece — if you're an editor and the take needs work, drop a manual rewrite into window_guide_text meta on the team post.