With the ‘exodus of 2026’ amounting to a total of sixteen players quitting West Ham following relegation, the first wave of departures face the prospect of being labelled too posh for the Championship: Too good, or in some cases thinking that they were too good, to stay around and fix the problem they had created.
The Hammers’ landmark summer sale at £85 million – a truly enormous sum considering the £35m plus add-ons which West Ham paid for Mateus Fernandes just 12 months before – showed the new West Ham board deploying their considerable business acumen and pulling off a transfer coup.
£85 million still looks a staggering figure as the Portuguese u21 midfielder was sold to London neighbours Tottenham.
At least the young man didn’t rub salt in the wounds with any Kudus – like pronouncements that his heart belonged to Spurs.
Unfortunately it hasn’t been plain sailing for young Fernandes. He’s failed to make an impact and even found himself hooked after just 45 minutes in Spuds’ last game before the international break as his manager claimed he“didn’t like the performance of Mateus today.” (Forbes.com)
Fernandes has struggled at Tottehnham and was hooked after just 45 minutes last time out.
Relegated twice in successive seasons, some Spurs fans have suggested he’s still coming to terms with his double failures.
However the claim has also been made that Fernandes is being used out of position and is no natural number 10 – where Di Zerbi chose to deploy him last time out. In any case there is a massive amount of schadenfreude (for me, anyway) in watching Tottenham struggle this season with £140 million of former West Ham ‘stars’ in their midst.
Remember, this is a side that is winless and rooted bottom of the Premier League table.
Shame, isn’t it.. Despite spending more than three hundred million pounds in the summer window gone.
Fernandes and his new club struggle as his manager can’t decide whether he’s a six, an eight or a ten. Had he watched any of the young midfielder’s performances at West Ham? You’d think not. Joking aside, from all his excellent performances as a Hammer last season, you’d still back Fernandes to come good once his manager finally works out how to use all of the available talent – for which his club massively overpaid.
In the meantime, just sit back and enjoy their struggles.
COYI!
I’d take him back for £20m in the next window as we pass Spurs…
hate to see a player like Fernandes ruined by Spuds. the lad’s got buckets of talent. but then, how many decent centre forwards did we ruin?
As much as I would love to see the Spuds relegated, I cannot see them being in the bottom three by the end of the season. There’s just too much class in that squad. Di Zerbi surely will get them sorted before long and the wins will come. Either that or Di Zerbi will be shown the door marked ‘do one’.