Well, a late flurry of activity as the transfer window closed. It was surprising to see James Ward-Prowse loaned to Nottingham Forest. He scored seven and assisted seven goals in the league and assisted another four goals in cup competitions last season. James might not have been a starter under Loppy, and he generally played it safe as a central midfielder, but he never gets injured and would have been a great option to bring on and fling in set pieces when chasing games.
More positively Lopetegui has managed to sign Carlos Soler on loan from Paris Saint Germain for the season and he clearly rates him above JWP. Soler has 14 caps for Spain, a hipster beard and a couple of title medals with PSG so he's obviously a handy player. And this is probably a signal that J-Lo no longer wants West Ham to be seen as a set-piece side. Though having failed to see Ward-Prowse score with a free kick all last season what are the odds that he bags one in his first game for Forest?
Nayef Aguerd has been loaned out for the season to Real Sociedad. There's clearly a lot going on behind the scenes and presumably Nayef hadn't settled in England. But Moyes loved him when he arrived and it seems too soon to give up on a £30 million player who makes fewer mistakes than the promising but raw Dinos Mavropanos.
The other departure is Maxwel Cornet to Southampton, which will leave my pal Matt gutted. Cornet looked a good player at Burnley and scored some cracking goals, but never got going at West Ham after an early injury, though he did a good job of gatecrashing the Europa Conference League celebrations.
But overall it's been a good window with the squad left stronger after Tim Stedten's work. WHU have signed Kilman, Todibo, Wan-Bissaka, Soler, Rodriguez, Guilherme, Fullkrug, Foderingham and Summerville, while Ward-Prowse, Aguerd, Cornet, Johnson, Ogbonna, Benrahma, Kehrer and probably Zouma have departed. Now Lopetegui just has to mould this lot into a team,
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