Spanish La Liga club Girona apparently turned down our bid of £29.6 million, according to Spanish news outlet AS for Ukrainian striker Artem Dovbyk. He certainly matched the criteria: 27 years old, 1.86 metres tall and capped 30 times by his country.
Last season’s 25 goals and ten assists in 41 appearances in La Liga looked a pretty impressive return and his pacy, aggressive style could have been perfect for our new look West Ham team being assembled by Steiden and Lopetegui.
Negotiations with West Ham did seem over almost before they began, with the player stating that he wished to remain in the red and white of Girona and would not be considering a move this summer. With Champions League football to look forward to and a family reportedly well settled in Girona, prising the player away from La Liga was always going to be a tough ask: Athletico Madrid had already tried and failed with a previous offer of 25 million euros.
Barring a very unlikely about turn then, this is another piece of transfer business that ends up on the ‘unsuccessful’ list. It does however provide concrete evidence that we are active with the very best in the market place, and that the £30 million budget I pencilled in yesterday (‘better striker options for less than £35 million’) seems about – if you’ll excuse the pun – ‘on the money’.
Good news indeed and evidence to those worried we might ‘only’ be bringing in a free or loan striker, that there is a budget in place to give our front line sharper teeth: £30 million ain’t what it used to be though and getting a gem at that price will not be easy with seemingly half of Europe on the same trajectory. They don’t have a ‘Steiden’ on the case though.
It was only a couple of weeks ago that Claret & Hugh were insisting we only had a budget of £51m, having bought Kilman for £40m it would surely be a waste of time chasing £30m strikers?
I guess time will tell, Morty, whether the club were involved in a ‘cunning plan’ to talk down their available funds in an effort to be better placed in negotiations. If we ONLY bring in a striker on a ‘free’ or loan, and nobody else follows, then I guess the £51 m budget claim was nearer reality.
True, it would certainly be unique if our board had a cunning plan 😊⚒️⚒️
Proof that no one knows what our budget is or who our real targets are.
You mean the West Ham management don’t know either! Priceless. 😂
Living in Girona (near Barcelona) or East London? Tough one that…
Daft argument this one. Plenty of players have left the likes of Barca or Madrid for London clubs.
And it’s not likely the players are going to live in some Newham xxxxhole like East Ham or Forest Gate is it?
Yeah, but cor blimey mate, it’s all about the culcha, init! Know what I mean?
Wonder how many other clubs have bids for players rejected? Or the player concerned wants to stay at his present club? Thousands I would guess. But most don’t seem to be reported.