There’s a certain whiff of Felipe Anderson about West Ham defender Jean-Clair Todibo, who is currently enduring a nightmare loan stint in France with RC Lens.
Much like the Brazilian winger, Todibo was purchased for nearly £35 million, with high expectations following a ringing endorsement from then director of football Tim Steidten. Unfortunately, things have gone badly wrong for the former Barcelona centre-back, both at West Ham and now back in France.
During his time at the London Stadium, Todibo reportedly had disagreements with all three of his head coaches: Julen Lopetegui, Graham Potter and Nuno Espírito Santo. It rather supports my suspicion that Todibo could get into an argument in a room on his own.
Lens Want Todibo Gone, Claims Insider
Claret & Hugh have spoken to a football insider who knows the player very well, and his assessment of the situation at Lens was damning.
“He’s having a nightmare, they [Lens] want to send him back but West Ham won’t take him.”
If accurate, that leaves West Ham with a serious problem. Todibo was sent back to France in the hope that he could rediscover the form which once made him such an attractive prospect, but his loan spell appears to be doing little to restore his reputation.
His struggles with fitness and playing time have already attracted attention in France as we covered yesterday, and the suggestion that Lens now want to cut short the arrangement makes matters considerably worse.
Todibo has been a nightmare signing for West Ham
West Ham Facing Another Expensive Transfer Disaster
All of which plays into a very familiar scenario where Todibo’s valuation is plummeting, almost mirroring that of not just Felipe Anderson, but also the far more recent example of Niklas Füllkrug.
All three are players West Ham paid a fortune to recruit, only to find themselves facing the prospect of practically giving them away.
As for Todibo himself, his stock is now so low that I suspect West Ham would struggle to attract an offer of even £5 million if they wanted to move him on quickly.
That is my assessment rather than a confirmed valuation, but it demonstrates the scale of the problem. If West Ham eventually accepted a fee anywhere near that figure, they could be looking at something approaching a £30 million loss on their original investment.
And that is before considering the possibility of having to negotiate a financial settlement to terminate his contract.
Unless Todibo’s fortunes improve very quickly indeed, West Ham could be facing another hugely expensive mistake in the transfer market.
He’s on the books now at about £25.5 million and is amortising at about £7.25 million per year.
He only becomes a loss if he leaves the club before amortising to zero, on loan it’s likely his wages are being met or at least the majority of them are and he’s likely bringing in a loan fee that comes off of his book value.
It’s actually quite hard to lose money on a player as provided they are loaned out their book value reduces quickly.