By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
As much as I would love it not to be the case, West Ham are really in no position to pick and choose where we sell Mateus Fernandes.
Despite club claims that they will look to retain key players, I’ve always believed the Portuguese midfielder, alongside Crysencio Summerville, would be impossible to keep at the London Stadium.
With Jorge Mendes as Fernandes’ agent, it was always going to be difficult to keep him happy.
And if we’re honest, he’s too good for the Championship and there is far too much interest from too many clubs.
The Best West Ham Could Hope For
The best thing West Ham could realistically have hoped for was a bidding war.
And that’s what we have, of sorts.
Okay, there have been no official bids lodged, but that’s as much to do with West Ham’s radio silence as anything else.
What we do have in their place is an awareness amongst clubs wishing to sign the 21-year-old that they have competition for his signature.
That can only help the Hammers when it comes to maximising the fee.
De Zerbi has set his sights on Fernandes
We Can’t Be Choosy
Unfortunately, with West Ham no longer being a Premier League club, we can’t afford to be picky and choosy regarding the destination of outbound players.
The fact of the matter is, we couldn’t do anything about Mohammed Kudus moving to North London last summer, and we won’t be able to do anything about Fernandes either.
He’s just destined to be one of those players who passes through for a season before moving on elsewhere.
He Was Going Anyway
Undoubtedly, seeing him sign for Spurs would be a bit of a stinger.
But if they really are prepared to pay the £85m fee and are willing to pay in fewer instalments than other clubs, then I’m afraid he’ll have to go.
And if that manages to kickstart West Ham’s transfer window, then it possibly won’t be the worst thing in the world after all.
Because the reality is, he was going anyway.
I don’t like Spurs, though less so now that Daniel Levy has gone.
However, if they are preared to pay the bucks for Fernandes, I wouldn’t have a problem, I would bite their hand off!
It seems that we will lose Summerville and Fernandes, a shame and the fault of some extremely poor managerial appointments. The most we can hope for is to get top-draw prices.
85 million would be an amazing fee considering his career so far. Don’t be fooled by Chelsea fees for Enzo Fernando’s etc, instead look at the fees for.Cumha, Mbuemo and Semenyo as a guide. These are all top proven Prem players who also score goals. I would be VEEY happy with 75 million for Fernandes but I bet we won’t get that. I reckon 54- 60 million on reality but I hope I’m wrong.
I would be glad to see him with Spurs!! Whoever he plays for is relegated, Saints then Us!!!!
The idea that the selling club will choose where the player will end up is a bit outdated. Perhaps that was the way in the 80s and 90s but Players hold the power now. He’ll go to the club he want to be at and we’ll have to agree on a few with them.
Fernades and Kudos are nothing alike. Kudos went to Spurs because they were the only realistic club in the market for him. With Fernades that’s not the case and lets not forget the player has a choice, even if Spurs offer the best deal you can’t make him sign for them.
Who cares who of our players is sold to Spurs? What difference does it make where a player ends up? I see Spurs as i see every other team, just another team. Millwall may be different for very historical reasons (my Grandad was an East London docker so i’m aware of the rivalry) but Tottenham? Who gives a damn. Pay the asking price, let him go there, they’ll be a good team with him and Tonali and Van Hecke and a few more. We can’t offer that because we didn’t have deep enough pockets and better owners and good enough managers when we should have kicked on after the Conference League win. It’s tough but it’s reality.
We are where we are, partly because of the players that are about to be sold, including Fernandes and Summerville. Sell ’em to Tottenham, get maximum cash, reinvest it more wisely, build a new and better team under a new ownership model and in a few years maybe we’ll be challenging the likes of Tottenham. In the meantime, take our medicine as we have to and thank the Tottenham-bound players for their (lack) of service.
In fairness Gonzo, while I agree with not being picky I disagree about not having a choice on who we sell too.
With Kudus the club wanted to sell him, with Fernandes and Summerville that’s not as far as we know the case.
If there is radio silence it has to be an indicator that the club is at the least keeping its powder dry.
DK will well understand how toxic it could be to sell your best players to Tottenham from the fans perspective and am fairly certain would be reluctant to do so.
The players both have contracts from an international perspective there is no need for them to move because there are no national competitions, from a career perspective they are unlikely to realise much at Tottenham who aren’t in Europe and have a manager whose longest stay was 2.5 years.
They will be moving from one basket case to another at board level. At least by staying there is the possibility we will be better in the short and medium term if we sort out the infrastructure.
So I would think we are in a position to hold onto them if we choose and use Tottenham to drive up the price if we don’t
Don’t agree at all we might be in a different league but Tottenham Tottenham they never wanna allow ourselves to send any more players to that club also we have a new machine now we need to act differently. Kudos was sold because Brady didn’t know what she was doing. Let’s hope things change now Star in the ground and new reset for West Ham.
Given how his transfer turned out after a pretty rapid decline in form at West Ham, I think history might show that Brady selling him for £55m was an absolute genius move.
How about we show some pride and respect, I’d rather sell him for a few mill less and over a longer period to Man Utd , than embarrass and shame your own supporters by once again giving that lot the upper hand over us. You reported that Kretinsky will bankroll the clubs debt win the shirt term so why are you stating that we have no choice
What do you mean we can’t be picky we just got relegated by them now give them our best player? Embarrassing artical
Too good for championship 😳
His been in teams relegated twice !
That doesn’t happen to great players!
Gives the ball away a lot
Keep him or be picky who we sell him to
Nobody knows anything really. For 2 weeks the socials have been telling us he had his heart set on Man U, now he only wants Spurs. It’s all just speculation.
Exactly right despite all the “we hold all the cards” headlines we really hold very few. Once the club was relegated anyone that can get a move to a premiership or better European club will do.
It’s a fantasy to pretend otherwise. We couldn’t stop him going to Spurs if they are the best offer he gets.
Everyone who can go will go, Bowen may have too much of a emotional bond but only him may stay amongst the good players. Don’t people remember the last time we were relegated? Lost everyone except Defoe who went later and Carrick who was injured. Just the likes of Dailly stayed.
We have a long haul on our hands with second rate Premiership players, academy players and maybe lower league hopefuls.
Again shows the fine margins as Spurs could of so easily been us, if only Villa and Everton had turned up and we didn’t flunk the Newcastle game.
Defoe is a tw@t!!!! He asked to leave as soon as we got relegated!!!
My humble opinion is that De Zerbi was found out in his second season at Brighton so it could go either way with him at Spurs
I fully agree with Gonzo – if Spurs are the ones prepared to pay the asking price he will go there
Fernandes is a talented player who turned in good performances last year – but after one season he will never be a West Ham legend – unlike Declan Rice (dons hard hat)
Let him leave and we can get in a replacement
COYI
Sorry Gonzo, I agree with you most of the time but this time I think you’re wrong. Selling one of our best players to a hated rival in Tottenham should never happen as far as I’m concerned. I would never have allowed Scott Parker to go there or Jermaine Defoe, or Michael Carrick, or Kudus. There are plenty of other clubs that would sign these sort of players. It’s just a kick in the teeth for the fans. You won’t see Arsenal selling players to Tottenham. I have no objections to us selling them our crap players however.
The issue is does he really want to go to spurs ,
You’d be spewing wouldn’t ya?
Your agent gets you a move from a recently relegated club to a club that was flirting with relegation (and eventually gets relegated). So your agent decides to get you a move from your newly, recently relegated club to one that was flirting with relegation.
Time for a new agent?