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West Ham United’s selection headache is far bigger than the injury list suggests for our opening Championship game against Burnley. Yes, Keiber Lamadrid and Tomas Soucek are sidelined, but Nuno Espírito Santo is also expected to overlook Aaron Wan‑Bissaka, Niklas Füllkrug, Soungoutou Magassa, Maxwel Cornet and potentially, if reports are correct, Edson Álvarez and El Hadji Malik Diouf. That’s six players, none injured, earning conservatively £250k a week between them, effectively unavailable. It’s a staggering amount of talent and money sitting idle at a time when squad depth is already stretched thin. Diouf- sitting out the season-opener as a transfer looks increasingly likely Even so, the reality is that Álvarez will almost certainly be forced into action, while Diouf is expected to make the bench though Ollie Scarles remains ahead of him in the pecking order, primarily in order to reduce risk of injury to Diouf given Sunderland are circling and have already had a £40m bid rejected. With Engels available once international clearance lands, West Ham still need more signings to stabilise the squad. The club’s priority now is simple: get organised, get bodies in, and get ready. Because once the window slams shut on September 3rd, West Ham United could look unrecognisably different and the rebuild may finally start to make sense.