Manuel Pellegrini Reveals the Two Players Who Needed to Leave West Ham This Summer

Manuel Pellegrini wasted no time in stamping his authority on the team since taking over at West Ham immediately letting Edimilson Fernandes and Toni Martinez know they had no future at the club.

The Hammers are targeting a much more prosperous campaign after flirting with relegation for the majority of last season. The Chilean has been generously backed by the club spending over £100m to execute his vision for the London club.

Bringing in some high profile talent like Felipe Anderson and Andriy Yarmolenko has put the team in good stead for the new season. The former Manchester City boss was also eager to clear some of the deadwood at West Ham though and cast a quick eye over his squad upon arrival.

Stephen Pond/GettyImages

Fernandes and Martinez were two of the first players he deemed surplus to requirements. Reports claim that Pellegrini informed both players at the start of the summer they would find game time extremely limited under his stewardship, encouraging them to move on.

The Hammers have since agreed loan deals for both players with Fernandes joining Fiorentina and Martinez going to Rayo Majadahonda. Martinez is yet to feature for West Ham spending the second half of last season on loan at Valladolid.

The 21-year-old could still be handed a future at the club if he impresses on loan this season. Fernandes meanwhile was a first-team regular last season but was deemed surplus to requirements following the arrival of Carlos Sanchez from Fiorentina.

Giuseppe Bellini/GettyImages

Pellegrini was quoted by Football London as saying: "We bought those new nine players, some players like Fernandes and Martinez need to play and they knew from the beginning that they were going out on loan so the squad is the squad that I want for this season.” 

Pellegrini got off to a tough start at West Ham suffering a 4-0 defeat at the hands of big spending Liverpool.