With the FIFA 2026 World Cup tournament in full swing, several key West Ham players will be ‘off limits’ as far as transfer talk is concerned until the competition is completed at the end of July. Crysencio Summerville tops the list of course, but Aaron Wan Bissaka, El Hadji Malick Diouf and Edson Alvarez must be players pencilled in as likely ‘fund raisers’ for the Hammers to pay down debt before rebuilding their side.
Which makes Mateus Fernandes‘ situation even more important: The 21 year old has been omitted from Portugal’s World Cup squad owing to their huge talent pool and so will be not only the first ‘Hammer under the hammer’ this summer but also the most valuable.
Crucially for West Ham, life in the Championship means that preseason starts early this season – just twenty five days away. For squad morale and for proper mental preparation ahead of next season it is important the Fernandes deal is finalised ahead of the non-internationals reporting for pre season training.
Early pre-season mean Fernandes sale really needs to be concluded by 6 July
Drawing a line under the relegation campaign will be tough enough with some loanees returning from far and wide- but having Fernandes show up knowing he’s about to be sold would be disastrous for the rebuilding of squad morale and launching a decent tilt at the Championship title.
So 6th July would seem the crucial date by which the Fernandes transfer needs to be completed. Likely it will be sooner: Suitors Manchester United and PSG will have their own pre-seasons in mind and likely not dither for long once the window opens on Monday of next week.
At least from Claret and Hugh’s earlier article it would seem that West Ham do have a leadership team in place to handle the Portuguese midfielder’s negotiations. Which is just as well because it seems agents have already been in contact ahead of the formal Monday starting gun being fired.
Keep Mateus. Keep them all. We need them now to cakewalk the Championship and to hit the ground running after we are promoted.
Now is the time to build on an effective foundation. Now is not the time to completely assemble a ‘team’ from scratch.
Find the money elsewhere. Keep our core.
He wants out. Should’ve made the WC squad in my opinion but obviously didn’t and that has frustrated him.
Great mentality but has no loyalty to West Ham so he won’t play in the Championship (same with Saints last year).
He’s a better player at this age than Rice (again only my opinion) so will want to play top level.
I don’t blame him and wish him well but hopefully we can get top dollar.
Makes him worth more than Rices £105m.
Agreed, I would be surprised if a bidding war breaks out and it’s more. He’ll be sold again at some stage for mega money so we need a sell on clause