• £5m would have secured Everton’s Yakubu
• Marc Wilson of Portsmouth would have cost West Ham £3m

After losing their opening three league games, West Ham’s hopes of avoiding a relegation struggle this season were dealt a further blow by their precarious finances preventing the purchase of Yakubu Ayegbeni and Marc Wilson during the transfer window.

While £5m would have bought Yakubu from Everton, only £3m was required to take Wilson, the Portsmouth captain, to Upton Park as Avram Grant, the manager, sought to strengthen his squad.

Under the Israeli, West Ham have scored only once in the league so far and their next match is the visit of the champions, Chelsea, on Saturday week, which suggests they could reach mid-September still pointless.

Following a net spend during the summer of £6m for the Mexico forward Pablo Barrera, the New Zealand defender Winston Reid and Lyon’s Frédéric Piquionne, loan deals or the sale of an established player were Grant’s only viable options for further recruitment.

Although Liverpool indicated a late interest in Carlton Cole before yesterday’s closing of the transfer window, which may have allowed Ryan Babel to join in his place, Grant’s preference would have been to keep the England striker while also adding a 15-goals-a-season striker to his squad, such as Yakubu.

While Barrera cost £4m and Reid £3m, they are 23 and 22 respectively and Grant has said they may need time to settle in. Piquionne’s ability to score enough goals to support Cole is also moot, after he managed only five in 34 appearances when on loan at Portsmouth last season.

There was better news for Grant, though, after the Premier League confirmed that Lars Jacobsen, a 30-year-old right-back, could join on a one-year deal from Blackburn Rovers after paperwork for the free transfer arrived close to yesterday’s 6pm deadline.

Kieron Dyer, meanwhile, the injury-plagued midfielder who has started West Ham’s last two league games, is confident the club’s form will improve. “We were disappointed again on Saturday,” he told the West Ham website. “Man United away is not going to determine how our season goes but it’s another 3-0 loss. It would have been good to get some kind of result just to get the confidence up. We’ve got two weeks now [ahead of Chelsea] and we’ve got to get the confidence from somewhere because when we do click and get it together, we are not a bad team.”

Dyer, who is now 31, added that Chelsea can be defeated: “We believe we can beat Chelsea. It’s a completely different game, a derby game and form will go out of the window. We’ll have the crowd and it’s one of those games where Scotty [Parker] gets in the tackles and gets the crowd going, so it’s going to be a completely different challenge to Man United. So who knows?

“The manager is trying to change the mentality of players and we have to change it because, like I said, we have to start winning games. We’re obviously playing catch-up already.

“Obviously last season was a massive struggle but where I’m coming from, for me personally, I’m just buzzing to play football again.”

David Sullivan, the co-owner, said tonight he was happy with West Ham’s recruitment he did hint at the club’s financial difficulties. He said: “We have combined youth with experience this window and are pleased with the work we have done, even in these challenging times for the club.”

West Ham UnitedTransfer windowJamie Jacksonguardian.co.uk

• Tottenham keen to sign midfielder and will make improved offer
• Parker ‘not for sale at any price’ said West Ham after first bid

Harry Redknapp will test West Ham United’s resolve over Scott Parker by making a renewed attempt to sign him from Upton Park before the closure of the transfer window. The Tottenham Hotspur manager is expected to offer the striker Robbie Keane to sweeten the deal.

Redknapp wants another body in central midfield, even though he has signed the 21-year-old Brazil midfielder Sandro from Internacional for £6m, and he has looked at Parker, Lassana Diarra of Real Madrid and Internazionale’s Sulley Muntari.

Redknapp has already seen a £7m bid for Parker turned down but, in keeping with the Tottenham strategy of going down to the wire on deadline day, he is ready to go back to West Ham, his former club, with an improved offer.

He knows that Parker, West Ham’s captain and key player, would welcome the chance to consider the move, despite its potential for acrimony, yet there is resistance to the sale at boardroom level at Upton Park. When the club’s co-chairman David Sullivan rejected Tottenham’s £7m offer at the end of July, he was categorical on the situation.

“I made a promise that I would not sell Scott and I will not, for any amount of money, break that promise to the West Ham supporters,” he said. “Scott is not for sale at any price, to anyone.”

Parker has three years to run on his West Ham contract and the club have offered him a lucrative new five-year deal, which he has not yet signed.

Keane has grown frustrated at his fringe role at Tottenham and Avram Grant, the West Ham manager, is on record as saying that he likes the Ireland striker.

Redknapp watched one of his attacking targets, the Sevilla striker Luís Fabiano, commit his future to his current employers by signing a two-year contract extension today. Redknapp had admitted that the Brazil international was “a player I like” but Tottenham were put off by Sevilla’s valuation. “One year left on his contract, in excess of £24m-£25m for a 29-year-old – the figures don’t stack up,” Redknapp said.

The Tottenham winger Aaron Lennon will see a specialist tomorrow about an ankle problem that has bothered him of late. He has been left out of the England squad for the upcoming Euro 2012 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Switzerland.

West Ham hope to conclude a loan deal for the Everton centre-half Joseph Yobo. Fabio Daprelà, the 19-year-old Swiss defender, has left West Ham to sign a five‑year deal with the Italian club Brescia.

West Ham UnitedTottenham HotspurTransfer windowDavid Hytnerguardian.co.uk