Claret & Hugh have had it confirmed that West Ham United have ended their pursuit of Jørgen Strand Larsen and are now focusing on other positions.
The decision appears to have been driven by a combination of pragmatism, panic and price, as the club look to get deals over the line as quickly as possible.
As a result, West Ham have turned their attention to Gil Vicente striker Pablo Felipe Pereira de Jesus, who is expected to join in the coming days.
West Ham’s rumoured bid for Strand Larsen will not happen
Price And Pressure Force Change Of Plan
Wolverhampton Wanderers were demanding £40m for Larsen and, with interest also coming from Crystal Palace, the Hammers could afford neither the time nor the money required to progress the deal. In short, Espirito Santo needs players in immediately and there is little or no time for drawn out negotiations.
Instead, the club have moved swiftly for Pablo, a client of Jorge Mendes, who is also reported to hold partial ownership of the player.
Despite rumours continuing to circulate that West Ham are still preparing a formal offer for the Wolves forward, Claret & Hugh were told bluntly: “That’s not accurate.”
For now, the Larsen pursuit is over — and West Ham’s January plans have taken a decisive new direction.
Given the price and our need am happy if we have signed Felipe, 21 years old aggressive and hungry seems like a good option that if needed we can take with us to get us back up. Larsen is low on confidence too if his penalty was anything to go by and also doesn’t seem to operate as well without another forward alongside him, at Wolves he had Cunha here he would be as he has been expected to do it all himself.
Happy New Year to all long suffering Hammers fans.
You just know that Strand Larsen will score against us on Saturday don’t you.
Surely it would have been worth keeping up a pretence of a bid ust to get him withdrawn from their team for the game against us.
So who will be our next Plan B striker?
I’m not sure there is one mate. Just waiting to find out.
Partial ownership?? Would that be different to Tevez and Mascheranos ownership problem? Would Mendes need to end that agreement before we can sign the player?
I think the transfer does that mate. The trouble with Tevez was that they were both on loan.
In effect, us buying Pablo ends the third party ownership.
Cheers Gonzo…happy new year
I always thought that the problem was the two players were owned by a company as opposed to a club. That was the breach , right?
Mascherano was given a special dispensation to sign for Liverpool having been at two clubs already that year.
Tevez, was sold to Man U, for a low fee, Kia kicked off and threatened to sue as any monies should have gone directly to the stake holder on the company who he is the front man of!
How on earth did the powers that be sanction either of those transfers out of West Ham?
What really was the difference apart from they went to two top clubs.
If money is tight why not stick with Marshall as back up?