Thomas Vermaelen
The Hammers enjoyed their best ever Premier League points return last season and the impending move to the 60,000 seater Olympic Stadium has seen the club linked with a host of star names.
Slaven Bilic is reshaping his squad after selling James Tomkins to Crystal Palace and releasing Alex Song, Emmanuel Emenike and Victor Moses.
The surprise sale of homegrown Hammer Tomkins has led to speculation the club will sign a defensive replacement.
And the latest to be linked with a move to East London is Barcelona flop and former Arsenal defender Thomas Vermaelen, as reported by the likes of The Sun.
According to reports, the Hammers will have to cough up as much as £10m for the 30-year-old.
Injury-prone Vermaelen has managed just 11 games in two seasonsVermaelen move would make a mockery of Hammers progress
If the speculation is true it threatens to make a mockery of West Ham's recent progress as a club.
West Ham would be a fantastic move for the Vermaelen.
But would the Belgian be such a good move for the Hammers?
The injury-prone star played just 110 games in five years at Arsenal, that's just 22 games a season. And Arsenal's seasons usually comprise of around 55 matches all told.
His record is even worse at Barca where he managed just 11 appearances in the last two seasons.
Yes the Belgian can be a class act when fully fit, but unfortunately that is all too rare an occurrence.
West Ham's Manuel Lanzini celebrates with fellow bargain buy Dimitri PayetGamble would abandon transfer policy which is working well
If the Hammers do take a gamble on Vermaelen, they would be abandoning the transfer policy which has served them so well in recent years, a transfer policy which was very deliberately and radically changed towards the end of Sam Allardyce's tenure.
Co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold brought in talent spotter Tony Henry two years ago and the club's transfer business ever since has been some of the best in its history.
Dimitri Payet arrived for just £10 million, Manuel Lanzini for even less, Cheikhou Kouyate cost just £7m, Aaron Cresswell just £3m and now Havard Nordtveit and Sofiane Feghouli on free transfers.
High hopes: Hammers youngster Reece BurkeConveyor belt of youngsters on the cusp
They have also snared prodigious young talents like Ashley Fletcher from Manchester United, Domingos Quina from under Chelsea's noses, Martin Samuelsen from Manchester City and Tony Martinez from Valencia with a view to the future.
Add to that the fact West Ham have cleared a first team path for their hugely promising defenders Reece Burke and Reece Oxford by selling Tomkins and the move makes even less sense.
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West Ham used to be a club that offered a last pay day to injury-prone players who had seen better days but the last two years have changed all that.
Why risk spoiling all the progress over the last few years for Vermaelen... it just doesn't add up.
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