Sign up to FREE email alerts from Football London - West Ham Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

We are only three days into the January transfer window and, as usual, West Ham have been linked with moves for a whole host of players already.

Gary Medel, Gabigol, James McCarthy, Gary Cahill, Jonjo Shelvey, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Danny Drinkwater and Martin Skrtl are just some of the players who are apparently on their way to the London Stadium over the next month.

Football.London understands that the Hammers are not expected to be massively busy over the coming few weeks but with such an injury depleted squad, Manuel Pellegrini might dip into the market once or twice to cover in a few positions. In terms of players leaving, the club will listen to offers for Reece Oxford and potentially Andy Carroll too but the latter is unlikely to depart.

Fringe players that Pellegrini doesn't think will make the first team squad every week could also be allowed to leave the club temporarily to get games, think U23 stars that are nearly there but not quite - the arrival of Samir Nasri could see some pushed down the pecking order.

Loan deals or transfers under £10m are the most likely for incomings however after the club splurged £95m this past summer in a massive spending spree which has seen the Hammers find themselves in the top ten after 21 games of the campaign. There is not an endless pot of cash in east London and after such a vast summer of spending and an increase of the wage bill, the club needs to be careful with its spending.

If you see a rumour linking the Hammers with a £20m swoop for a player it's probably best to knock it on the head as the wage bill in east London is right on the limit of breaching Financial Fair Play. Money would of course be available if a player of considerable value leaves but Pellegrini is happy with his squad and is not planning on losing anyone of significant worth.

Medel is one deal likely to get done over the course of the month at the very least and he is available for around £5m, can play in two positions, so you get the picture. It's a West Ham transfer window so don't be surprised if an obscure cheap move arrives, think Xande Silva last summer.

(Image: Manuel Velasquez/Getty Images)

West Ham have already recruited free agent Nasri to the squad following the end of his doping ban and he is expected to make his debut against Birmingham City in the FA Cup this weekend. They haven't had to pay a fee for him obviously and he is on a heavily incentive-based contract for the next six months.

The Hammers' transfer strategy over recent years has come under scrutiny after a number of massive flops in the market under previous managers but this summer, things changed with the arrival of the new manager.

So what can we expect in the transfer window and who are the people making the decisions?

Manuel Pellegrini

(Image: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)

Obviously, things start with the manager as he identifies the targets he wants to sign. Felipe Anderson was his main one in the summer and the Hammers eventually snared him for a fee that could rise to £42m.

Andriy Yarmolenko was also a Pellegrini target before the Ukrainian pitched up in the capital, so was Jack Wilshere, Issa Diop and Lucas Perez.

Pellegrini is the one who has to bed the players into the squad, he was keen to bring Nasri in for example as he obviously knows where he needs to strengthen. Pellegrini is the one who has instigated the proposed move for Gary Medel, despite some concerns from elsewhere over the transfer.

Pellegrini was obviously the key player in convincing the club to to get Nasri in and he is the beginning of the process and the ball gets rolling from there.

Mario Husillos

(Image: Malaga CF)

The Hammers director of football put out a lot of statements regarding new signings last summer after their arrival but in reality, it was only really Fabian Balbuena's purchase that was directly a result of Husillos doing the leg work and even then, the centre back was offered to the Hammers.

But considering Balbuena has been a big success in the capital, you can say that Husillos has a 100 per cent hit rate.

Husillos and his son, who is a scout for the club, have been off on his travels around Europe on scouting missions over the last few months identifying targets.

When Pellegrini has done his bit and identified the players, that's when Husillos gets down to work and tries to get the deals structured correctly but he certainly does not get them finished.

David Sullivan

(Image: Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Don't fool yourself into thinking that the Hammers co-chairman has taken a step back from sorting transfers because that's simply not the case. He just has Husillos to lean on now but ultimately, Sullivan is the money man and signs off on any transfer deal.

Sullivan has his trusted lieutenants that he works with, intermediaries if you will, that also help him identify players he should be looking at. One of those was Xande Silva, who joined the club from Vitoria de Guimaraes in the summer with a view of getting into the first team within a year - it took the young striker half that time after he made his debut against Burnley at the back end of 2018.

The co-chairman will be keeping his cheque book firmly in, well, check this winter because there is simply not the amount of cash people think is available. The Hammers certainly don't want to be breaking FFP rules so Sullivan will be keeping a very close eye on the purse strings.

Keep up to date with the latest news, features and exclusives from football.london via the free football.london app for iPhone and Android .

Available to download from the App Store and Google Play .