“Transfer stand off” | Report claims West Ham adamant they ‘don’t need to sell’ top talent

The transfer window is still ten days away from opening and the reports are already thick and fast concerning West Ham’s summer sell-off. Having announced to all and sundry that the club has a mountain of transfer debt and needs to sell players to fix finances and then fund the squad rebuild for the Championship might not have been the wisest call: Alerting buyers to a seller’s desperation only ever has one end. Lowballing.

Backtracking like crazy, West Ham’s ‘board’ (read ‘Sullivan”) now claim that there’s nothing to see here, no seller desperation and West Ham can pick and choose who goes out of the door in the summer.

As if anyone believes them.

Reported by metro.co.uk:

“[Manchester] United are yet to submit a formal offer for Fernandes but sources at West Ham are ‘dubious’ about their £80m asking price being met.

‘I would be surprised if the deal for Mateus Fernandes didn’t get done,’ Simon Stone, the BBC’s United correspondent, reported on Wednesday. ‘I believe the club are in a bit of a stand off with West Ham United at the moment, who are adamant they don’t have to sell and want £80m.’

Which is going to fool absolutely nobody, Manchester United included.

West Ham’s only hope to extract the maximum out of their Portuguese wonderkid now lies in the hands of fate, hoping that a second bidder enters the arena to force United’s hand and drive the price upwards.

Revealing the weakness of his negotiating stance last year probably cost West Ham’s Chairman £10 million in the Mohammed Kudus negotiations as Tottenham scented blood, knowing the Hammers had to sell in order to buy players.

It seems that lesson hasn’t been learned as a sense of dejà vu descends on West Ham’s transfer window a year later.