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Bilic snub haunts Hammers

Kelechi Iheancho is the one that got away!

His recent form for Leicester City has come back to haunt the Hammers.

Back in the summer of 2017 West Ham have pulled out of the race for Manchester City starlet Kelechi Iheancho on the orders of then manager Slaven Bilic.

ClaretandHugh at the time published an exclusive revealing that it undertood David Sullivan had agreed on a deal with both City and the player but that then manager Bilic pulled the plug at the last minute.
Just as the club believed they had landed their coup – having agreed to a buy-back clause – Bilic decided that the player was unproven and too much of a risk.

Bilic went on to sign Marko Arnautovic for £20m  later selling him to China for £22.5m two years later.

Iheancho might have had a slow start for the Foxes but he has come good now scoring 17 goals in all competitions for Leciester this season.

 

About Sean Whetstone

I am Season Ticket Holder in West stand lower at the London Stadium and before that, I used to stand in the Sir Trevor Brooking Lower Row R seat 159 in the Boleyn Ground and in the Eighties I stood on the terraces of the old South Bank. I am a presenter on the West Ham Podcast called MooreThanJustaPodcast.co.uk. A Blogger on WestHamTillIdie.com a member of the West Ham Supporters Advisory Board (SAB), Founder of a Youtube channel called Mr West Ham Football at http://www.youtube.com/MrWestHamFootball, I am also the associate editor here at Claret and Hugh. Life Long singer of bubbles! Come on you Irons! Follow me at @Westhamfootball on twitter

8 comments on “Bilic snub haunts Hammers

  1. So we would have paid 25mill for a youngster and waited 4 years to get any type of return? Who’s to say he would have developed the same? Would we have waited that long or sold him on at a loss? Would we have stayed in the Premiership without Arnautovic’s goals. Hindsight is 20/20 vision. So many imponderables in this piece.

  2. I seem to recall the problem was man city’s insistence on a ‘buy back’ clause.

  3. Biggest miss from that team is Wesley Fofana who was Moyes number one defender target in the transfer window. Unfortunately we were outbidded by Leicester.

  4. I reckon Arnie turned out to be a great signing, £20mil for 2 seasons and 21 vital goals and a small profit on a 30 year old striker….

    Iheanacho cost the same, with 3 years of scoring 20 goals in 90 games and £3.12 Mil. pa (£64kpw) before seeing any real return…..

  5. Bilic snub? No. I don’t buy that. Kelechi did nothing for Leicester since after from Man City before scoring nine goals in the same time space that Jesse has also scored nine. Fair play to the lad as it’s been a great effort, but let’s see if he scores another five or six before the end of the season and if he gets 20 plus a season in 2021-22. Jesse’s transformation from being frozen out at Old Trafford has been the better achievement.

  6. I can’t believe we actually made a profit from selling Arnautovich.I’m too used to seeing us lose 10 + mill on players these days.

  7. It took a while & it’s bc they are playing a front two & that suits him at City he was great as sub but he had KDB Silva Sterling & on creating for him so he just got in the box. Always been a good finisher but we got Chicharito who is fox in box but we rarely played front two.
    Mcginn who we where linked with last time Moyes wa here in Jan for £4m wish we got him huge fan think is underrated.
    Or more lately Toney even Fry told them to get, it was obvious he was a talent & he cost less then Ajeti £5m up to £10m with performance which be worth it. We could of loaned him out to Brentford. That’s what we need to do but players like that get on right loans or develop into team & if they don’t work out we can sell on for profit.

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