Two summers ago, West Ham embarked upon a massive spend-up in the summer window. Tim Steidten, Julen Lopetegui and David Sullivan between them blew approaching £150 million on a group of players now, sadly, infamous for being largely overvalued, underperforming and in most cases, already moved on from the club at huge expense.
Luis Guilherme, Niclas Fullkrug, Jean Clair Todibo, Max Kilman, Aaron Wan Bissaka, Guido Rodriguez all cost eye watering sums and failed spectacularly (or in Kilman’s case ‘is currently failing’) to live up to their billings.
Only David Sullivan’s “pick” – Crysencio Suymmerville – lived up to expectations and in the end generated a big profit. On current showings, Max Kilman would struggle to pin down a fee of even a quarter of the £40 million Lopetegui forked out for him.
And then there’s Mohamadou Kanté. The cheapest, least hyped, most understated buy of that infamous summer. Kanté was an £800,000 ‘punt’, immediately loaned back to his old club Paris FC and hardly seen for a year and a half.
However, I’d suggest somebody at Rush Green knew exactly what they were doing when the young Kanté was presented with a new West Ham contract last October when then still only 20.
That contract was a six year deal, meaning the Hammers now have one of the hottest midfield prospects around with five years left to run on his contract.
Kante signed a new long term contract last October – meaning someone at the club deserves a huge pat on the back
Kanté has proved to be the bargain buy of that 2024 summer, virtually unheralded compared with the £25 million blown on teenager Guilherme and the rest. And whoever had the foresight to give him a new contract last season deserves a serious pat on the back. He’s already become a game-changer, as was evident yesterday from both his unstoppable running and another top goal scored.
Clearly he’s not yet the finished article as illustrated by his poor touch on 89 minutes that led to his red card. However it would seem there’s no limit to this youngster’s potential to impact games in a West Ham shirt for several years to come.