It would appear that West Ham never stood a chance of signing France Under-19 forward Eli Junior Kroupi, who joined Bournemouth yesterday before being loaned back to Ligue 2 club Lorient.
The talented young winger, dubbed ‘the next MbappĆ©,’ signed for the Cherries for a paltry Ā£12m, prompting Hammers fans to ask, “How the hell did that happen?”
West Ham were reported to have made a transfer offer of Ā£30m for the player, with an initial down-payment of Ā£15m, which was rejected by the French club.
However, it has now come to light that there was really only ever one destination for Kroupi because Lorient are AFC Bournemouthās sister club. Furthermore, the South Coast club’s owner, Bill Foley, also has a stake in the French club, meaning he has, in essence, sold a player to himself.
Matt will update later with a full breakdown of the situation, but it is clear that West Ham never stood a chance of signing a player who was always destined to move on from Bournemouth’s feeder club
Doggy handshake, nod of the head, wink of the eye goes with this deal.
Old muckers agreement.
L.orient will receive future sale money ,and a lot more than you where going to pay,
Players lent to them costing nothing ,four other clubs under Bournemouth as well and more on the way.Happy days.
Surely Todibo, couldn’t go to united
How can he go to Bournemouth
This is due to the fact Nice were in European competition, the same as Man United.
As neither Bournemouth or Lorient are in Europe this season, they can make transfers as they wish, same as the situation between Chelsea and Strasbourg, or any other sister clubs outside of European comps.
So Lorient have to sell their player at a bargain price to Bournemouth rather than getting full market value for him? That the bulk of future money made on the player will go to Bournemouth? Most owners who own multiple clubs are normally more discreet about this kind of manipulation.
Shame we didnāt test the water early in the window and then move on
Strange how we bid for players that will cost a fortune knowing the outcome will be that we missed out yet the players we brought in havenāt cost a penny
100% Terry. Hearing our fans singing the words of our Bubbles anthem on Transfer deadline night with only 1 loan signing summed up our whole transfer window. 34 bloody days of checking every West Ham site while Sky Sports News telling us Man City had spent another Ā£180 million was the final straw for all of us!
Why didn’y West ham owners or fans seem to know this. All the Bournemouth fans were laughing the whole window as this has been on the cards for a while and obvious that they wouldn’t let a player leave their sister club to another, regardless of a few million extra offered. Standard West Ham delusion.
Calm down, dear… You may have noticed that we changed manager and recruitment setup during the window, which would’ve led to some stress.
There are hundreds of clubs, and tens of thousands of footballers out there, so let’s let the lads settle into their new roles before we chastise them for what they did or didn’t know, and judge them based on the Summer window…