A concerning West Ham transfer claim has emerged that is sure to leave many around the London Stadium absolutely fuming...

What's the word?

According to journalist Paul Brown, the Irons failed to submit an offer to sign a striker throughout the summer transfer window, despite it being one of their biggest needs.

"They made quite a lot of bids last season for strikers, and none of them came off. I don’t think they actually really bid for a striker properly this time around," he told GIVEMESPORT.

"I think there were negotiations for quite a few. But they decided ultimately to keep their powder dry because [David] Moyes wanted the money spent in other areas first."

Foolish mistake

The Hammers' business during the summer was very close to being perfect, having signed a new marquee centre-back in Champions League winner Kurt Zouma, replaced the presence of Jesse Lingard with Nikola Vlasic and signed back-ups in the goalkeeping and central midfielder department.

But the decision to not try and bolster the frontline could come back to haunt the club.

It means Michail Antonio remains as David Moyes' only senior option and the 31-year-old has been troubled by injury problems in the past - he has not started over 24 times in the Premier League in four straight seasons.

West Ham got a glimpse of exactly what it's like to be without him as they lost to Manchester United over the weekend. Antonio missed the game through suspension and his presence up top was sorely missed.

Instead, it was down to Jarrod Bowen to be the leading man but that's merely dragging another player out of position to make up for their foolish mistake this summer.

Plenty of strikers secured moves during the window, too.

Danny Ings swapped Southampton for Aston Villa, Odsonne Edouard finally left Celtic to join Crystal Palace, whilst Blackburn Rovers goal machine Adam Armstrong replaced the void at St Mary's Stadium.

Tammy Abraham even departed Chelsea and signed for Jose Mourinho's AS Roma.

Interestingly, the east Londoners were linked to all four of those names at some point, so it's not as if any were out of reach, and that makes the call to not sign one of them even more baffling.

The London Stadium faithful will be far from pleased with this development, that's for sure, especially after they suffered in Antonio's absence this weekend.

AND in other news, £60k-p/w West Ham beast who made 97% of passes was Moyes' one shining light vs United...