West Ham Fan View: Why did the Hammers sign Patrice Evra?

West Ham announced today that they have signed free-agent Patrice Evra in a deal that will last until the end of the season.

Evra was in the headlines for the wrong reasons in November when he was banned by for seven months by Uefa after an incident with a fan.

This led to him leaving Marseille and he has been without a club since. But why did we sign him?

The old Patrice Evra

There is no doubt that Evra is one of the greatest left-backs in Premier League history. He made 273 appearances in the Premier League for Manchester United, winning the league five times alongside winning the Champions League in 2008.

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Evra was one of the most consistent players under Sir Alex Ferguson and he was not only a good defender, but he was also able to burst forward and deliver threatening crosses. Evra’s leadership and dedication saw him become a player that was loved by the Manchester United fans.

But let’s not forget that we are not signing the same Evra that was at Manchester United and his decline was evident near the end of Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign. Although he provided the best moment for fans during David Moyes’ reign, with his thunderbolt against Bayern Munich, he was not performing at the level required.

Poor transfer strategy

He is not the player that he once was and Evra’s signing once again highlights our lack of direction in the transfer market. It was only in December when David Sullivan said in an interview that West Ham will target younger players, mentioning that signings ‘won’t be 32’. Evra is 36.

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We signed Pablo Zabaleta in the summer who is 33 years old and whilst he has performed well in multiple games this season, we have to build a squad for the future. We already have two left-backs in Aaron Cresswell and Arthur Masuaku, who has performed well this season, though he is banned for six-games.

This signing shows that we have not learnt our lessons in the transfer market. Once again, we have signed a player past his prime and there is little hope that these mistakes will be corrected in the near future.