The dream £30m signing set to be West Ham's biggest summer buy - according to an intriguing prediction
West Ham have a lot of work to do in the summer transfer window - and we asked AI to predict their biggest moves.
Even if West Ham successfully avoid relegation from the Premier League this season, they face a challenging summer. Their best assets – players like Jarrod Bowen and up-and-comer Mateus Fernandes – will likely be the subject of interest from sides further up the table, and there are a number of problems which need to be fixed if the club are to become competitive again.
Recent attempts to find a reliable goalscorer appear to have failed and the defence has been shambolic at times. Throw in the likely need to find replacements for players like Bowen, and West Ham will have a lot of decision to make when the transfer window opens – and a burning need to make the right ones. So where will they splash their cash?
Out of curiosity, we decided to use AI to peer into the future to find out just how West Ham might spend their transfer budget over the summer, and asked it to predicted the single biggest deal that would take place at the London Stadium should the Hammers stay up…
£30m centre-back to be West Ham’s biggest summer deal – according to AI
We asked a well-known AI algorithm to take a stab at the player West Ham might spend the most on, and the answer it came back with was, in some ways, a little underwhelming – a relatively small £30m outlay on Toulouse defender Charlie Cresswell.
The AI predicted that rather than going big on a marquee signing, the Hammers would spread their spending over several more modest deals as they attempt to patch the squad up. An eminently sensible if not necessarily exciting suggestion.
Cresswell is already the subject of alleged interest from West Ham (a fact which presumably inspired the algorithm’s choice) and £30m is around about the transfer fee which has been suggested by the gossip columns. The Hammers were one of a few Premier League teams linked with the centre-half over the January window, but he ended up staying in France, where has flourished since signing from Leeds in 2024.
A key member of the England Under-21 side which won the European Championship in Slovakia last summer, Cresswell is now 23 and has cut an impressive figure in Ligue 1 – but is he really what West Ham need if they’re going to turn things around next season?
Why West Ham could look at signing Charlie Cresswell
Given recent transfer rumours and the fact that West Ham are liable to address their defence in some capacity this summer, a prediction that Cresswell will make the move to East London isn’t especially revolutionary – but is he the kind of defender West Ham need?
While comfortable enough with the ball at his feet and an economic passer, Cresswell isn’t a natural technician and wouldn’t be classified as a ball-playing defender – instead, his strengths are his aerial prowess and his positional sense, which he uses to put himself in key areas to clear up dangerous situations.
He has excelled in that role for Toulouse, and pairing a player like Cresswell with a more cultured centre-half such as Jean-Clair Todibo makes plenty of sense on paper. The only question is whether Cresswell would represent a sufficiently substantial upgrade on Kostantinos Mavropanos, who has slotted into the same sort of role this season.
Statistically, their output is remarkably similar, with the raw data suggesting that there is currently very little between them based on their work this season – but Cresswell is younger, with more room to grow and develop, and is also playing for a team who aren’t struggling quite as badly as West Ham. Given how much defending Nuno Espirito Santo’s side have had to do this season, that may well have artificially inflated Mavropanos’ numbers.
A side-by-side comparison suggests that Cresswell would at least maintain the current standards with some chance of pushing the bar a little higher. Whether that’s enough, with West Ham looking for substantive improvements, is open to debate – but it’s hard to argue that the AI has come up with a prediction that is either far-fetched or foolish.