Double blow: How West Ham's two potential transfers went wrong
It has been a bruising few days for West Ham's transfer plans. Axel Disasi, long considered Nuno Espírito Santo's number one target heading into the summer, is set to join Crystal Palace rather than return to East London. Almost simultaneously, Troy Parrott, seemingly the club’s top striker target, has committed to Real Betis after West Ham’s pursuit of him via AZ Alkmaar collapsed. Two of the names most central to Nuno's rebuild are both gone, within a week of each other, and it's worth asking whether the way West Ham handled one of those pursuits ended up costing them the other.
Disasi never gave West Ham a firm yes, but for most of the summer, that didn't look like a problem. After agreeing in principle to a deal with Chelsea, Disasi wanted to take a wait-and-see approach. His half-season loan at the London Stadium had been a genuine success. The French defender formed an effective partnership with Konstantinos Mavropanos and quickly became a fan favourite, reaching an understanding with the club that if a Premier League side made a concrete move for him, his priority would be to remain in England’s top flight.
That plan held for weeks. It stopped holding the moment Crystal Palace, needing a replacement for Maxence Lacroix, entered the race with Chelsea. Palace offers Disasi Premier League and Europa League football; West Ham, relegated, could only offer the Championship and a reunion with a manager who knows how to use him. Once Palace got serious, there was never really a contest. As much as West Ham hoped Disasi's familiarity with Nuno's system might count for something, top-flight football for a 28-year-old with two years left on his Chelsea contract was always going to win out. He moves to south London on a straight loan deal without an option to buy.
Parrott ops for Champions League over the Championship
The Parrott pursuit followed a similar arc but with a harder financial edge. West Ham had identified the AZ Alkmaar striker, fresh off 31 goals last season, as their top forward target, and had been quietly confident of getting a deal done. Talks stalled when West Ham's bid fell short of AZ's valuation, and while the Hammers were still technically in the race as recently as this week, Real Betis's ability to offer Champions League football proved decisive. Betis agreed to pay AZ a deal worth £17.1 million. Multiple reports confirm West Ham weren’t far off from that number, but Parrott who showed interest at first, opted for La Liga.
West Ham have operated this window with a modest transfer budget in the region of £40 million handed to Nils Koppen's recruitment team, even after banking close to £170m in outgoing fees from Mateus Fernandes' £85 million move to Tottenham and Crysencio Summerville's £55 million plus-add-ons switch to Al-Hilal, with a further boost expected from Freddie Potts' £10m exit to Club Brugge.
A large share of that summer's spending has gone to balancing the books. As reported by GSH on August 11th, Koppen and Nuno had made Disasi a priority and allocated about £20 million of the transfer budget for his permanent transfer. That left enough in the budget to bring in either Arne Engels or Troy Parrott. Koppen’s number target since June has been Engels. After securing the former Celtic midfielder, West Ham submitted a below-valuation offer for Parrott that was rejected. The club never officially went back with a 2nd bid, most likely because Disasi was still in play. By the time the Crystal Palace loan for Disasi materialized, AZ and Parrott were already talking to Real Betis.
Supporters have voiced their disappointment, but this is simply the reality of operating with a Championship budget. Betting on Disasi's loyalty rather than moving early and aggressively for Parrott may have been the more cautious, cash-conscious approach, but caution has now cost West Ham first-choice options at two separate positions in the same week.
With both names off the board, attention shifts to the alternatives already being floated: veteran forward Jamie Vardy has been persistently linked as a short-term, low-cost option up front, while defensively, West Ham continue to be linked with Cardiff City's Dylan Lawlor, one of the Championship's most highly rated young centre-backs after his role in the Bluebirds' promotion last season. There are questions about his fitness as he sustained a preseason injury.
Neither name carries the marquee appeal of Disasi or Parrott, but given the budget constraints already shaping this window, they may better reflect the level West Ham can realistically operate at. Joel Piroe's arrival from Leeds has already given Nuno a proven Championship-level alternative to Parrott up front. The real test now is whether West Ham can move quickly enough on a defensive alternative to avoid a third target slipping away before the September 1st deadline.
