'Depressed' David Sullivan Gives Brutally Honest Interview About West Ham Transfer Woes

West Ham United supporters, look away now.

It's been a miserable summer transfer window for the Hammers, only adding to the doom and gloom which accompanied a dismal end to the 2019/20 campaign and off-field concerns.

The London club has failed to make any new additions to the squad in the window, except for completing a permanent move for midfielder Tomas Soucek. And supporters' impatience reached extreme levels of frustration and rage at the beginning of September, when the club agreed to sell promising youth academy product Grady Diangana to Premier League rivals West Bromwich Albion.

So, with the pressure firmly on the Hammers' hierarchy, joint-chairman David Sullivan decided to speak out on TalkSPORT on Wednesday morning, offering his side of events to a desperate fanbase.

It was... interesting.

Discussing the Diangana sale, he admitted he has 'no regrets' over the decision, stating that an 'unbalanced squad' and a plethora of wingers forced them to sell the starlet.

"It was a decision made because we have eight wingers," Sullivan explained. "Robert Snodgrass who played yesterday in a holding midfield role scored a wonderful goal. Anderson is a fantastic player, Yarmolenko had two assists last night. Unfortunately we have got a very unbalanced squad."

Amid concerns over a lack of activity in the transfer market, Sullivan was quick to stress that they were looking for reinforcements to bolster the squad, but 'the benchmark is very high,' pricing them out of moves for key targets.

He said: "We have a number of bids in for a number of players. These are key players at decent sized clubs, obviously outside the UK, and they don't want to lose them so it's difficult. Whether we get any of these players I do not know.

"We've now got the funds to buy a player or two. Unfortunately, the players the manager wants, we can't get. Unfortunately, the benchmark is very high and it's very hard to get those players.

"I cannot say for sure we are going to sign anybody. As each day passes, I get more depressed."

The chairman also appeared to publicly point at a failed move for Burnley star James Tarkowski, who has been the subject of several rejected bids from West Ham in this window. Although Sullivan refused to name the Burnley star, he did recognise that a '28-year-old centre-back from a Premier League club' was on their wish list, but a deal would have cost the Hammers their entire transfer budget.

Sullivan explained: "We have got limited funds, and if we had £400m to spend and someone said, 'You'll spend 10 percent of it, £40m, on a 28-year-old centre-back from a Premier League club who will remain nameless, you'd probably get the player.

"As 10 percent of your budget, it would make sense. But to spend your entire budget on a 28-year-old centre-back, we're struggling."

The Hammers' chief then went on to discuss the current options available to manager David Moyes, and he didn't hold back on their impact since arriving in East London. Sullivan claimed the club has 'chased dreams for the last two years,' and those big-money signings 'haven't improved' the team's fortunes.

"We've chased dreams for the last two years and bought a pile of players who unfortunately haven't improved the club, and maybe they will over the season, because they are some damned good players," he continued.

"The reserve team we're putting out in the Carabao Cup is a very good team, particularly in attack. We had a forward line last night that would be playing in half of the Premier League clubs, but I can't go and sign two or three players that the manager doesn't want."

Sullivan also seemed to distance himself from the role he played in the construction of this team, claiming he 'bullied' former coaches into the signings of rare recruitment successes Lukasz Fabianski and Issa Diop.

He added: "I could quite simply go and sign two or three players tomorrow, but we'd have a civil war at West Ham because I don't pick the players. The manager picks the team. Under the previous regime the only two players I picked were (Issa) Diop and (Lukasz) Fabianski, and I bullied the manager into taking them because I liked both the players.

"All the other players he and his director of football picked and I regret not stopping some of the signings, but you have to back the manager."