How long does it take to ‘make an offer’, you wonder. This weekend we were told that “West Ham would be making an offer” for Southampton’s Mateus Fernandes. Today the narrative morphs to ‘West Ham are preparing to make an offer’: What comes next – West Ham ‘are in the middle of ‘making an offer?
In reality the negotiations have most likely started but both clubs are keeping their cards close to their chest. For a change.
Earlier today the consensus was that West Ham would need to part with £30 million – possibly more– to secure the Portuguese midfielder’s signature. Which seems a lot of money for the Hammers to fork out without a single midfield ‘outgoing’ sale to offset.
You just wonder whether the carefully released details earlier today of the Hammers’ interest in Lille’s Ngal’ayel Mukau is a genuine plan B or simply meant to make Southampton get real in respect of a selling price.
If Manchester City are prepared to part with James McAtee for a reported £20 million plus then you have to question £30 million – or more for Fernandes.
Unlike the John Victor debacle where the poor Botofago ‘keeper was left at the altar as the Hammers levered Leicester City down to under £20 million for Mads Hermansen, this Southampton stance could actually see West Ham head off and sign Mukau instead and save themselves about thirteen million quid.
From what West Ham fans saw of the Lille midfielder in the Boyle Sports Cup, he is so much more than an Alvarez-style defensive midfielder replacement. And still just 20 years old. Frankly, landing either of the pair before the Sunderland game would be a bit of a coup. Just an opinion.
Why chase Fernando’s for £30m when we can get McAtee for £20m and he’s ENGLISH???
I just can’t fathom the muddled thinking at our club sometimes.
If James Mcatee is available for 20m plus it’s a no brainer in eyes.
£30 million has been signposted all over the media for the last few days, so why are we meant to be surprised by this figure? Apparently Southampton have stated that whoever comes up with that figure gets the player. This is so typical of West Ham: it’s all smoke and mirrors. For instance if they knew McAtee was going for £20m why didn’t they go for him? David “we are skint” Sullivan must appreciate that some cash needs to be injected upfront as we can’t wait for deadline day when we finally ship out some of the fringe players.
Brownhill……stop the nonsense with other names we all no it is going to be Brownhill….