West Ham will today be sweating on the closure or trading window for the Saudi Pro League. With 24 hours remaining on deadline day, the Hammers will be hoping to avoid a last ditch transfer plunder.
Quite frankly, Premier League clubs can consider themselves fortunate, because the Saudi window was due to run for even longer.
Transfer plunder? West Ham will want to keep hold of Nayef Aguerd
While the Saudi Pro League transfer window was originally scheduled to close on September 20th, it was brought forward at the request of the Saudi Football Federation and it will now shut on September 7th.
Whilst Liverpool’s Mo Salah has dominated the news, other clubs will also be relieved to see the end of the elongated trading period.
West Ham’s own Nayef Aguerd and Pablo Fornals have both been linked with Saudi interest. It should be stressed however, that neither player has given any hint they’d like to leave.
Earlier during the window Michail Antonio was linked to a move. Steven Gerrard was appointed by Saudi Pro League club Al-Ettifaq earlier this summer. The former Liverpool skipper wasted little time in trying to sign English based players.
Jordan Henderson was recruited to the cause, before attention turned to Antonio. Bizarrely, it was reported that Al-Ettifaq could not afford a transfer fee for The Hammer. Antonio’s rumoured wage offer was also in line with what he currently earns at The London Stadium. As a result, it was hard to see the allure from the Jamaican strikers point of view.
West Ham and many others in the Premier League will breathe a collective sigh of relief. The Saudi trading has caused a lot of anxiety amongst fans . . . surely the next step to run all national transfer windows concurrently.