Geoff Hurst has praised West Ham’s dealings at the end of the summer transfer window.
In a busy final 24 hours, the London club re-signed Alex Song in a season-long loan deal from Barcelona, recruited Victor Moses on loan from Chelsea, signed Nikica Jelavic and Michail Antonio on a permanent basis and loaned Matt Jarvis to Norwich.
Hurst, one of the most celebrated figures in West Ham’s history, revealed that he had never heard of £7 million winger Antonio, who joined the club from Nottingham Forest. But the 73-year-old believes strengthening the team will be important as they bid to retain their Premier League status before next summer’s move to the Olympic Stadium.
SEE MORE:West Ham announce signings of Jelavic, Moses, Song.
“It’s been a good one, it shows the positiveness of wanting to make sure we’re in the Premier League next year, vitally before we go into the Olympic Stadium,” said Hurst, who was speaking at the launch of the Kickstarter campaign for Bo66y The Movie, a documentary about England great Bobby Moore.
“I’m quite pleasantly surprised. Re-signing Song again on loan is a good move. Already [Dimitri] Payet looks good, [Cheikhou] Kouyate from last year looks terrific. Quite a high percentage of the people they’ve bought are performing quite well. Looking at the players they’ve signed, it looks very positive.
“I’ve no idea about the Notts Forest guy at all, hadn’t heard his name until Monday, so I’ve no idea who he is. Matt Jarvis went to Norwich so they seem quite keen this guy’s going to be good.
“Jelavic is a good player, I’ve seen him play quite a bit, he’s a good goalscorer, I’m okay with that subject to him being fit and well. He’s a natural goalscorer and I like that. Victor Moses has got great potential. He’s performed fairly well at the clubs he’s been at, he’s quite fit and dangerous.
“It’s an unusual start to our season, beating two clubs [Arsenal and Liverpool] away and losing two at home but with the players we’ve bought, a refreshing new manager [Slaven Bilic], we should have a good season.”
Much of the early-season excitement at West Ham’s prospects surrounded the emergence of Reece Oxford, a promising 16-year-old defensive midfielder. However, Hurst has warned against building him up too much at such a young age.
“He looks very good. He’s a very young player, performed well in the Arsenal game. It’s very difficult to make predictions about young players, there’s a long, long way to go but the first sign, when he played against Arsenal, he looked a great talent.
“But there’s a long, long way to go. We talk about players too quickly, too early, give them too many headlines too quickly. I would stay away from that.
“He looks a huge prospect, but there’s a long way to go for him before we start talking about him in terms of what a good player he is.”
The campaign for Bo66y Moore the Movie launches on Sept. 3 at kickstarter.com
