West Ham winger Mohammed Kudus has shown his hand by ditching his former agent and signing with the Roof agency, as reported yesterday.
Claret & Hugh has discovered this morning that, while the agent switch will slightly reset any personal negotiations, it’s expected to hasten any deal between interested clubs.
As a source told us earlier: “Make no mistake about it, this is a move by Kudus to get the transfer done.”
It has also been made clear that Arsenal, in particular, have an excellent relationship with the Roof agency—who represent academy boss Per Mertesacker, current player Kai Havertz, and have handled previous deals for the likes of Serge Gnabry. It would probably be unfair to label Roof as the Gooners equivalent of Will Salthouse, but there is clearly a good relationship between the Emirates and the agency.
Whether that puts the Gunners in pole position to sign Kudus remains unclear. Conflicting reports still suggest Chelsea are front-runners, and barely a day passes without Tottenham being linked to the Ghanaian.
Newcastle United remain in the frame, as do Manchester United to a lesser extent.
What is crystal clear, however, is that the agent switch is a serious hurry-up from Kudus. He appears determined to secure a move away from the London Stadium as soon as possible.
If the board understood the supporters and the nature of football rivalry they would never even consider selling one of our players to a London rival.
He can want to get away but until someone puts in a decent bid he stays under contract.
Doesn’t matter who his agency is.
The release clause is £85m.
If we need money to build then we must stick to our guns. £85m, not a penny less.
In that case he wouldn’t be going anywhere, especially as he is not interested in Saudi. So I would say definitely more than a penny less!
If he doesn’t go anywhere then so be it. How are we supposed to rebuild ourselves giving players away £20m+ less than their release clause. No one is going to help us and let us have players cheaper so why should we. We’ve constantly done it for years on end and it has now caught up with us. Look at the supposed trouble we’re in, “can’t buy until we sell” we’re told. Getting 85m instead of 65m is 20m towards another player. Football is now more than ever a business and you need to do what’s best for business.