Redknapp, Roeder & Relegation: The story of the 2002 transfer window

With numerous rumours flying around all over social media & many big name players on the move this summer, it's very easy to get caught up in the furore that is the transfer window. Just this week, West Ham finally announced the first new addition to their first team squad with the signing of Moroccan defender Nayef Aguerd from Rennes, who brings with him plenty of international experience and top-flight European experience from his two seasons in North-West France. But with this window shaping up to be an important one for the future of West Ham United, it only seemed right to delve into the past and examine previous transfer windows. Just like this summer, these transfer windows highlighted the importance of getting it right were paramount. Today's article focuses on the 2002 transfer window. 

20 years ago, West Ham were heading into the 2002/03 season following a 7th placed finish in the Premiership, with a squad boasting a lot of talent. Yet, the focus seemed to be mainly on two promising young English talents, of whom big things were expected. Sound familiar?  Whilst the late Glenn Roeder may have not had the same managerial experience as David Moyes, a 7th placed finish in your first full season of managing within the Premier league is nothing to be scoffed at, plus managing the likes of Joe Cole, Michael Carrick & Paolo Di Canio meant us Hammers fans looked forward to the upcoming season. However... what transpired that summer and following season will live long in the memory of West Ham supporters... and not for the right reasons. 

To understand why this transfer window was a disaster, we have to go back a little further into West Ham's history, under former manager Harry Redknapp. Whilst Redknapp had delivered entertaining football to West Ham and achieved three consecutive top-half finishes between 1998-2000, he had done so by pushing the club to the brink of financial ruin. This was done by spending upwards of £50 million pounds in 8 years on 134 players, at a time where 50 million was a lot of money in the world of football. Moreover, two-thirds of those players were absolute rubbish, with every one success normally out-measured by two failures. 

But by 2002, the year after Redknapp left the club, it was paying £30 million pounds a year in wages, with ridiculous wages being spent on the likes of Titi Camara, who was earning 30 grand a week, considering he'd not played since December of the previous year. In addition to a bloated wage bill, the club had accumulated heavy debt due to Redknapp's irresponsible spending habits & the building of the new west stand at Upton Park.  In fact, the financial situation at West Ham was so dire, the only reason that the club had been able to sign any players the previous summer was primarily down to the £11 million pounds sale of Frank Lampard to Chelsea. 

So when Roeder went to the board in the summer of 2002 expecting some funds to strengthen his squad, he was informed that the only way that he could bring players in was by free transfers or loans. Years of overspending under Redknapp had forced the board into limiting the club's spending power and whilst it was a necessary business decision to keep the club afloat, it came at the detriment to the most important factor of everything, the football. 

Sure, if you're shrewd, the loan and free transfer market can work wonders if you sign the right personnel, but that's exactly what West ham didn't do. Sign the right players. 

Gary Breen, who came to the club off the back of a strong World cup tournament with Ireland that summer, looked like a great signing at first. But it became clear very early on that the World cup was just a flash in the pan for the defender. Edouard Cisse, signed on loan from pre-oil money PSG, wasn't much better either, scoring 1 goal in 28 games and struggled to adapt to the Premier league. And whilst experienced options in Les Ferdinand and Rufus Brevett arrived in January 2003, it was too little, too late as the club struggled all season to find any sort of form and were eventually relegated at the end of that season with 42 points, still the highest points total of any relegated team since the Premier league became a 20-team tournament in 1995. 

And whilst an exodus was expected at the end of that season anyways due to plenty of fringe players on high wages coming to the end of their contracts, the fact that the club had been relegated and would most likely lose many, if not all of its quality players, made things a lot more worse, especially as clubs could not rely on parachute payments in 2003 to bail them out of trouble. 

So whilst the 2002 transfer window can be classed as an unmitigated disaster, even if it was primarily caused by what had happened before, the fact that the season ended in a unexpected relegation, also meant that it would affect West Ham's future too.