Midfielder would be West Ham transfer record

Irritatingly The Hammers continue to be linked with Portuguese international Joao Palhinha. However, the price set by Fulham would make the midfielder a West Ham record transfer.

I say ‘irritatingly’ because I believe £50-60 million is massively overpriced for a one dimensional player. A fee of that magnitude would feel like lost money, if spent on a 28 year old blocker.

West Ham will only get one chance to spend the Declan Rice bounty and it must be spent wisely. To use over half of it on a player whose value would diminish each season is foolish.

Owner David Sullivan has worked incredibly hard to strike a great deal for West Ham. It would be unfortunate to see so much of that money wasted by overpaying for a player.

Palhinha performed well in the 2022-23 Premier League campaign. He arrived at Craven Cottage for £20 million which seemed like good money for a newly promoted club.

1 year later, and Marco Silva’s men are eyeing a massive profit on the Portuguese midfielder. A price tag of £60 million is being reported, and there was even talk of £90m at one point.

Sixty million would shatter West Ham’s transfer record (£50m for Lucas Paqueta) should we force through the transfer.

With Tim Steidten being announced as early as today, spending is due to start. As a result I’d expect West Ham to buy young players who’s value increases.

Palhinha is a decent player. But I’m keeping my fingers crossed we don’t spend half of our transfer budget on him.