By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
West Ham rejected the opportunity to sign highly-rated Greece international Christos Mouzakitis before the midfielder completed a Deadline Day move to Premier League Hull City, Claret & Hugh can exclusively reveal.
The 19-year-old completed a permanent move from Olympiacos to Hull yesterday, signing a five-year contract.
Hull Live report that the Tigers completed the signing late on Deadline Day, while reports elsewhere have put the transfer fee at approximately €15million – around £12.8million.
However, C&H has been informed that Mouzakitis could quite easily have been a West Ham player instead.
West Ham Had Agreement In Principle
A source close to the player told us:
“We had an agreement in principle with West Ham for Mouzakitis. The club only wanted a loan, which Olympiacos agreed to with an obligation to buy if West Ham got promotion.”
In the end, it wasn’t Olympiacos or the player who pulled the plug.
It was West Ham.
Our source added:
“West Ham thought they had too many midfielders, so said no.”
Christos Mouzakitis was rejected by West Ham
I’ll freely admit I knew very little about Mouzakitis before being given this information, but a little digging makes West Ham’s decision particularly interesting.
This isn’t some completely unknown punt.
Mouzakitis is already a senior Greece international with 11 caps despite only turning 19 in December.
He came through the Olympiacos academy and was part of the team which won the UEFA Youth League in 2024, scoring in the final against AC Milan.
A year later he was voted the winner of Tuttosport’s Golden Boy Web award, following previous winners including Jude Bellingham, Karim Adeyemi and Kenan Yıldız.
He also played ten times in the Champions League for Olympiacos last season.
Hull have clearly decided there is significant potential there and have invested accordingly, with the midfielder signing until 2031.
West Ham Could Have Delayed The £13m Gamble
What makes this one fascinating is the structure West Ham were offered.
There was no requirement to find £13million immediately.
According to our source, Olympiacos were prepared to sanction a loan with West Ham only becoming obligated to purchase Mouzakitis if the Hammers won promotion.
On the face of it, that’s exactly the sort of deal you’d expect a Championship club with West Ham’s financial issues to be exploring.
The recruitment team ultimately decided otherwise because they believed Nuno Espírito Santo already had sufficient midfield options.
And admittedly, numbers aren’t necessarily the problem.
West Ham have Arne Engels, Lewis Orford, Mohamadou Kanté, Tomas Soucek, Edson Alvarez and other options in central midfield, while Divine Mukasa demonstrated against Wolves that he can play there.
As I wrote on Deadline Day, whether West Ham have enough creativity in midfield is another matter entirely. I suspect we do but it’s difficult to argue the club are indeed bloated in the engine room.
I think if the 2 dodgements Alvarez and Magassa are staying and playing for the club, it makes us stronger surely, providing they play to there strengths and remember when they look at there monthly statement it is West Ham and there supporters who should be seeing a huge improvement in there performance.