At the time, it was widely reported that West Ham United’s bid for Taylor Harwood-Bellis was £12 million — an offer swiftly rejected by Southampton.
What has now emerged, as part of yesterday’s wave of “nearly signed” revelations, is that West Ham did go back in with a second bid.
That follow-up offer was a significant increase — £18 million — just £2 million short of Southampton’s £20 million valuation.
Which rather begs the obvious question: why not just pay the extra £2m?
Instead, the deal was deemed too rich for the Hammers’ negotiators, and on deadline day attention shifted to a loan move for Axel Disasi from Chelsea.
Near Misses Don’t Equal Progress
Quite why there has been such a flood of “what might have been” stories in the last couple of days is anyone’s guess. It certainly doesn’t make West Ham look better. And it offers fans absolutely no comfort to learn that the club were ALMOST doing the right thing.
If anything, it just reinforces a growing concern: West Ham repeatedly get close — but fail — when it comes to landing players we genuinely want. Don’t get me wrong, personally I had to desire to sign THB but once the club had decided he was a key target they should have gone all out.
Being £2 million short in a relegation fight is not smart negotiating.
It’s penny-pinching at the worst possible moment — and another reminder that this window was defined less by ambition, and more by hesitation.
Gonzo it’s been like this for so long why would Sulivan change now. He would rather pay a loan fee, wages for the player who not really interested and end up with nothing at the end of season than spend money on a player who would have a vested in the club and have an asset to sell if the worst were to happen. (Relegation) Sulivan is short sighted, has no forward planning and doesn’t care about the club only his bank balance.
‘ We tried ‘ , is what Sullivan and Co will say again before blaming Nuno’s idiocy in the transfer market . A quality DoF employed by Westham would have avoided this relegation catastrophe . Sullivan enjoys playing with his toy , Westham and so Westham are doomed unless the old man should pass away .
I don’t know, is ‘Del Boy’ or ‘Albert Steptoe’ a better comparison to David Sullivan? Maybe there are other characters that portray a stingy, penny pinching character better. What about Mr Burns in the Simpsons?
Negotiations are what they say on the tin. Southampton probably should have been asking for £30 million. They would then have been delighted to receive an offer from West Ham inn the region of a negotiated £25 million.
They need to tread warily with their initial valuation, though. Too high and the player is not within the West Ham budget. However if they begin asking at £20 million there could be a chance that West Ham might get to offer £18 million. There comes a point when West Ham reach their limit. It happened. We went elsewhere. Southampton are no worse off.
We can’t really criticise West Ham for not paying above the odds for someone they don’t rate at that inflated price. West Ham were told that we really needed Max Kilman at any cost. The owners backed this judgement and paid much too much to make sure that we got our man. That has not gone well. Probably because we didn’t go that little bit extra to bring in the others on Julen’s wishlist. Only another £350 million investment would have left Julen with no excuses and we would have celebrated winning two cups and two leagues.
If only.
PS I would have bought a better house and cars if I had had the extra money. I still had to get by day to day to live though. The financial experts told me to get a better paid job and encouraged 50% salary to go to pension payments. The figures on the paper were impressive to a numbers geek. They were not a reflection on my life and circumstances. They were fairy tales. The advisors moved on unaffected by my decisions of how to live my life.
They need to completely OVERHAUL the players aquisitions and contracts team… USELESS..
I try not to be too damning about what goes on at West Ham, but when we are faced with relegation, not spending some of the Paqueta money on a talented young centre half with Prem experience is a total head scratcher. I’m of the opinion that Disasi may be a good bit of business but will probably take a while to get going so surely better to have extra options, particularly with Todibo missing. Think Nuno is of the view that he can still conjure something up from Kilman, I wish him all the best with that.
The appointment of incompetent managers and reliance on them to determine transfer targets prevented talented players like Taylor Harwood-Ballys and Charles Cresswell from joining West Ham early on. Their value would have been equivalent to that of Max Kilman alone. They might have needed time to adapt, but they could have formed one of the most reliable central defensive pairings in the Premier League.
I wonder if you apply this to your own life Mr Gonzo? Do you up your offer from £120,000 to £180,000 on a home only to be told it’s £200k but decide that’s too rich for you? Do you pay the extra £20 thousand?
Great point. It’s very easy for us to spend someone else’s money but something is only worth what someone is willing to pay. No one else was willing to pay 20M for him in that window so maybe he isn’t worth 20M right now. Maybe his value will increase and we’ll regret it later or maybe we’ll get him for 10M in the summer. All that matters is we win games with the players we do have
What a supid thing to say.. what has that got to do with our club getting relegated. The board has penny pinched. Now we are virtually relegated..its simple..
Another delusional idiot who would happily pay whatever amount another club demands. Easy to spend other people’s money isn’t it? 🙄
Get close but Sullivan makes sure it’s not close enough.
£4m short for Cresswell in summer and £2m for Bellis.
Paltry sums when football world talk in millions.
Our owners are beyond imbecilic.
Nothing surprises me anymore.
So long as Baroness Botox can have her cosmetic procedures, and the cheapskate charlatan can buy more expensive trash for his tacky mansion and fiancée, all’s good and dandy.
It’s like some warped comedy satire.
As is now the established West Ham way !
Hope you’re well Gonzo
There’s another side to this.. aren’t fans constantly complaining that if we sign championship players, or players who have been in a team relegated from the premier league, the same fate will await us?
THB was part of the relegated Southampton team last season. Although not match fit, at this moment in time, I’d rather an experienced Axel Disasi than THB
Couldn’t disagree more. Bellis Harwood is a much better defender who happened to be playing in a very weak Southampton side last season. It’s sickening that Sullivan wouldn’t pay the extra two million, deja-vu what happened with Cresswell and many others in the past. For the sake of two million we are left with a player who clearly didn’t want to join us, who failed at both Chelsea and Aston Villa and hasn’t played a single first team game this season.