Guido Rodriguez and Carlos Soler joined West Ham in the Summer of 2024 as components within Julen Lopetegui’s attempts to create a solid, strong midfield group to add to the ‘talents’ of Edson Alvarez, Tomas Soucek and James Ward Prowse.
Incredibly, neither the Spanish Manager or Technical Director Tim Steidten foresaw the looming issue of the Premier League’s slowest, least mobile midfield which the duo had created.
The dreadful sight of successive opponents over running the Hammers midfield – first Chelsea, then Liverpool scoring seemingly at will – became the theme of that Autumn as the weakness of the ageing, immobile, s-l-o-w Hammers squad was brutally exposed.
Nuno arrived too late to rectify the situation which had continued to slide under Potter, who inexplicably insisted on making James Ward-Prowse the first name on his team sheet as West Ham’s performances grew weaker and the slide downward continued. The rest, as they say, is history.
‘Lopetegui’s worst decision’: And that’s a long list.
Now the NYTimes has revealed the awful truth that Lopetegui was pitched one of the top young talents in world football whom the Irons were monitoring, but instead chose the legendary lumbering duo instead:
“[Mateus] Fernandes, who joined in the region of £38million from Southampton and has attracted interest from Paris Saint-Germain, had been on West Ham’s radar since the summer of 2024.
Sources say the recruitment team pitched the Portugal international to former boss Lopetegui but he opted to sign the experienced midfield duo of Carlos Soler and Guido Rodriguez instead.
[At this point, countless Hammers’ fans’ jaws drop in silent anguish..]
Soler scored once in 31 league appearances during his season-long loan from PSG, while Rodriguez left in January to join Spanish side Valencia after a two-year spell. The department scouted Fernandes extensively and what initially attracted them to him was his age, resale value, his efficiency out of possession and his athleticism.”
So there you have it, West Ham could have bought Fernandes in 2024 when he joined Southampton for …€15 million.
Of all the unfathomable transfer decisions made in that summer – bearing in mind both Fullkrug and Kilman joined West Ham for something near £70 million – the rejection of Max Hahn’s recommendation to buy Mateus Fernandes will go down as one of the biggest mistakes of that season.
No wonder Hahn has quit. He’s probably just sick of being ignored and then proven right.
Oh the spilt milk! I don’t want to know anymore there is to my knowledge a litany of missed opportunities. What interests me is who is running out of the tunnel with hopefully Jarrod when season 2026_2027 kicks off in August. The rumours don’t make comfortable reading there is worrying news on the attack middle and defence. The Club not being rallied all hands to the pumps, no just rudderless indirection from the powers. I’m not talking about the players or coaches.
Forest and me thought you meant Pablo
It’s sick really, yous just putting these silly pathetic stories out there, and then your saying you’ve been a supporter since I don’t know when. Fernandes is probably one of the worst of the best midfielders we have employed in the last 10 years, don’t give him what ifs and maybes, his overall play has been about 6.5, so don’t big I’m up. If we move him on for decent profit, nice, time for change, love Jarrod, but never a captain, time too say goodbye
Hard to know what to believe with our club, maybe it’s true maybe it’s more b/s to create a scapegoat and draw attention away from Sullivan who is still here despite his being the biggest failures.
We got relegated with Fernandes and so did Southampton before him. Stop acting like he would be the saviour if came earlier.
Out of all the coaches except Moyes, Lopetegui did the best job. Tried to get rid of all bad eggs, but got pushed too early by fanbase and owners. Recruitment failed massively the Tim Steidten experiment specifically and DS bringing players late and pushing his players agent as usual did more harm than any coach.
We were going downwards path under Moyes also, Nuno and Potter both looked clueless and didn’t understand how to get best out of they got. Lopetegui at least showed he was adaptable and was trying to correct his mistakes. Us losing big under him is nothing new, that’s how his football is and if we clueless owner actually did some research he would actually back him till end of the season. And for once let going thru rebuild all the way thru instead of ditching everything at the beginning.