Let's not kid ourselves, as much as we'd like things to be different, we're as cheap at they come, putting in lowball offers, adding £1 on top of an existing bid, it's starting to look like we just do it on purpose to p*ss off the teams who own the players we make offers for so that it looks to the outside world like we're serious about signings quality players (reduces the pressure on the club).
Offering less than West Ham makes no sense at all, if their offer is turned down you'll know yours will be, we're the transfer market clowns, but I guess because the reality is we don't really want to spend the money if we can get away with it and dead end rumours and news of failed bids helps us on that score.