There seems to be massive activity inside the recruitment department at West Ham right now ahead of January’s transfer window in an effort to rectify the shortcomings which have been only too apparent this autumn: An attack short of goals and long on age, and a midfield just short of everything: No pace, no skill and no creativity.
Hence the reports linking the Hammers wit a multitude of young, fast and dynamic attacking midfielders such as Jobe Bellingham, Manchester City’s James McAtee and today as featured in Andy’s piece earlier, Chelsea’s Carney Chukwuemeka.
The battle lines are being drawn and it seems Chelsea are setting their negotiation stall out high: Just out this evening is an ‘exclusive report’ from givemesport.com stating that West Ham are facing frustration with their pursuit of Chukwuemeka owing to the sheer cost of bringing the player to east London.
There is along way to go yet in January, so these early ‘skirmishes’ aren’t anything definitive but Chelsea setting a price at £40 million and the player’s wages at £100,000 a week sets him well above anything which West Ham would be prepared to offer.
However the player is very keen to get some game time with another club in London so Chelsea’s stance may soften when nobody pops up to pay their huge demands for a young man who can’t get anywhere near the first team.
And sadly, January is often like this: Clubs don’t want to let players leave mid-season and so sit unwilling to negotiate, decreeing that the buyer either pays their premium or looks elsewhere.
Pointless transfer, he wouldn’t even make the bench
We took the same attitude with Duran and his ‘over inflated’ price. That worked out well.
He is nothing special, not worth £20m let alone £40m Chelsea always try to sell for the over inflated prices they pay. Let them keep him and struggle on FFP/PSR or whatever.
“ And sadly, January is often like this: Clubs don’t want to let players leave mid-season and so sit unwilling to negotiate, decreeing that the buyer either pays their premium or looks elsewhere.”
To be fair, this is exactly what we’re doing with Kudus. But he’s also not riding the bench like Carney is.
Yeah, Chelsea asking for approx. 50% of the price of Kudos? Laughable.
IMHO £40mil. +£100k pw. buys a Premiership starter, not a bench-warming reserve with potential upside.