Hammers speak for first time on Bournemouth bid

Exclusive

West Ham are unapologetic over making a bid for Bournemouth pair Callum Wilson and Matt Ritchie claiming they never made it public!

The club has exclusively revealed to ClaretandHugh this morning (Wed) that they did indeed make a bid but are clearly taken aback that the world now knows about it after it made a couple of pars initially in the media.

They have explained that the offer  for the pair was a private affair and that there was never intention – nor did they ever have any intention of – making the bid public.

That Eddie Howe – one of the quietest managers in the League- to have complained in his post match press conference about it – was indeed very strange however and smacks of mountains and molehills.

The Cherries boss had said: “We had a bid yesterday evening and the disappointment from our perspective is why the bid came in the day before our last game of the season when you have the whole summer to bid for players.

“The two players were in our squad and due to play in this game with a lot of speculation about their future. Bizarre.”

“The bid was rejected and we don’t need to sell. We want to improve our squad, not weaken it. Our biggest challenge is to keep ends the players we already have. Yes, it was West Ham and no it wasn’t £25 million.”

However, West Ham were quick to point out that at no stage did they as a club made the bid public and are clearly surprised that it has become a major issue.

Our top insider – said: “We put the bids in and  they were rejected. We think somebody at Bournemouth or a player’s agents made the bids public, as we certainly didn’t.”