Raking over the coals of the summer transfer window is inevitable during an international break where there is ample time to gaze back and digest who sold whom for what and why.
West Ham’s shaky window is an easy target and givemesport.com waste no time in sticking the boot in with their article today: ‘ West Ham’s transfer window rated-Two huge errors, Owners under pressure “
I wouldn’t be so sure about one of the so called ‘ huge errors’.
Whilst the first mistake is already pretty clear – the ‘not signing a striker’ issue has already come back to haunt the board. However, claiming the sale of Mohammed Kudus to arch rivals Tottenham was the second ‘huge error’ might be wide of the mark.
There were no other suitors ready to fork out £55 million, as far as we know. Of course, the deal with the arch rival Daniel Levy was a bitter pill to swallow at the time but consider this: The purchase of Mateus Fernandes would not have been possible – along with Hermansen and Diouf – without the cash from the Ghanaian’s sale. If you had to choose Fernandes or the moody Kudus, especially after the Portuguese midfielder’s debut, who would you choose? Exactly.
Arguably, West Ham are better off without Kudus. He wanted to leave. He’d been agitating for an exit since his dressing room bust up with Lopetegui and Mohammed Kudus had showed all season he plays for Kudus first, team second.
Long standing critics in Ghana have been lamenting his playing style – back to the end of 2024 -“Throughout the 90 minutes, he held on to the ball far too long, slowing down the team’s attack on multiple occasions.” Quite. Of course there’ll be a honeymoon period at Tottenham. but I’ll wager before the year is out Kudus reverts to type.
The introduction of electric Crysencio Summerville against Nottingham Forest in Kudus’ old inside left (showing my age) position has already helped West Ham fans ‘move on’ from the self-styled ‘starboy.’
Summerville, within minutes of his introduction was immediately everything that Kudus in his second season was not. Fast running, direct and unstoppable. And a creator of goals. Not running up blind alleys.
Given that Kudus was going to leave anyway, the ‘assist machines’ of Diouf and Fernandes already, along with a fit again Summerville, look to be well on the way to helping Hammers fans forget Mohammed Kudus’ absence.
Just of course, providing the Ghanaian doesn’t decide to turn the old magic back on for 90 minutes on Saturday. My money’s on Summerville to deliver. Just make sure to double up on Kudus, please, Mr Potter.
Have to say glad he left because he stopped playing for the club straight after the 1st season here, apart from a game or two. It’s exciting sometimes but incredibly wasteful and pointless most of the time. If a good coach gets him and helps him with his game and teamplay, could see a really good player one day.
He didn’t stop playing in his second season. Teams worked out he always runs with the ball and holds on to it too long so if they just doubled up on him they could win the ball back and launch a counter attack.
Mo will do a mo once spurs aren’t in Europe…and I personally can’t wait for that
One thing which people tend to forget (which comes back to Steidten) is that Kudus favorite position is wide right – so fitting him into the team with Bowen was always a challenge – I enjoyed him while he was a Hammer – as long as he has a stinker against us I don’t mind if he destroys other teams
Steidten’s first three buys were Alvarez Kudus and Mavropanos – now Mavropanos is the last man standing
Maybe he’ll turn out to be a Hammers legend
COYI
Kudus will look good for a while at Spurs, this will annoy us early on, but make no mistake, spurs fans will likely be cussing him by next season as his form tails off.
The great players are the ones that produce high quality output for the benefit of the team week in week out, season after season. Kudus has only played 2 seasons and has been sold on already to the only club willing to pay £55m for him. Doesn’t sound like a player in enormous demand to me. It’s not as if we were a winning machine with him in the team were we. Absolutely no loss to us all.
Selling Kudus one of our stsr players for £30m under the release clause to our rivals is nothing short of an error and an absolute joke from the board
Kudus did nothing in his last season with us, he gave every impression of having been rumbled by other teams quickly doubling and trebling up on him. He seemed to have no answer to it.
Kudus was the most, is the most overrated player ever I think. So glad we offloaded him to the Spuds. Got so fed up with his selfish dribbling. Always holding the ball up, holding onto it too long, running into a crowd of players, losing the ball. So glad he’s gone.