Those of us who were looking for any sign that the West Ham United / Aston Villa negotiations were going to restart and get over the line have to confront the new reality, according to a report published in the last few minutes by HITC . The saga which is the Jhon Duran negotiation has dragged on for what feels like a whole season but is probably a couple of weeks.
The report leaves little room for optimism, claiming that ‘West Ham United have walked away from the talks and have made their decision to give up on the pursuit of Duran.’
Aston Villa have refused to budge on their £40 million price tag, and whichever way the Hammers have offered, the amount has not been sufficient to secure an agreement. Where this leaves the player who has burnt his boats with Villa fans by making the ‘Crossed Hammers’ sign on his Instagram account – well, it isn’t our problem but ‘high and dry’ springs to mind playing second fiddle to Ollie Watkins for another year.
Whilst as a fan I am disappointed, I think Steidten/Lopetegui/Sullivan (whoever is doing the negotiating) is right to walk away. Better to be decisive and go after another target than waste more time this summer bidding for someone we can’t afford.
The argument for Niklas Fullkrug has yet to be made, perhaps a loan with option to buy might be a better bet with the jury still out on whether he can cut it at 31 years old in the Premier League. But, I ask you, could we really cope with having THREE strikers in their ’30’s. No, please, just No.
Never say never on the Duran deal, though, stranger things happen as the last few days of the window approach. The offer, tantalisingly, has apparently been ‘left on the table for the time being’. I wonder if ‘Villa believe we have really, truly, finally, completely walked away?
40 million for what. He is nothing special and has done nothing to warrant that price tag . I still believe we should go and get Ivan Toney who is a proven premiership goalscorer.
A young exciting prospect with a bad attitude … no thanks. The very fact that Villa and their limited resources will be in four competitions (PL, FA Cup, League Cup and CL with it’s new format) and the fact he’s a striker will mean he’ll have plenty of opportunities even if Watkins stays fit and healthy.
35 appearances in a season and a half for the club that pays his (presumably pretty tasty) wages and 15 Million+ transfer fee helping them into the Champions League … but he wants out. Greedy!
If he did sign for us there may have been a sweet honeymoon period but as soon as things weren’t rosy he would have been putting in another transfer request and making waves in the dressing room and on social media.
I’m sick to death of this saga!
We’re at the stage where I’d prefer a striker who’s near the finished product. Although Fullkrug hasn’t played in the Prem, he did well enough in Euros, and in Europe, and has a lot of qualities we lack in our front line at the moment. In his case, age isn’t so much an issue — Giroud is 37 and still effective. A similar kind of player.
Aside from that, if we land Fullkrug, Summerville, and Bissaka, will we start to see fewer negative articles and a bit of positivity?
Why would we want to spend 30-40m on a 20 year old player when we have plenty of players that age at the club already? Duran has hardly set the world alight since he came to the EPL. Just got lucky with a chance
I’d put money on Duran heading our way…….but not at Aston Villa’s asking price. It might be £30m plus add on’s and a sell on clause inserted. If West Ham don’t buy him, another will and he’ll be sought after inside two years. Duran is that good. Forgive him for behaving like the 20 year old lad he is.
If Westham pay 40 million instead of his much lower transfermarkt value , Duran may fail due to the pressure of that bloated price tag . So far in this transfer window Westham have overpaid by 10 million on two of their three signings and mustn’t continue on this suckers trail . Focus on defense now RB and CB and polish some of the attacking academy players . Over paying for Duran will massively strengthen Westham’s close rival ,Villa .
We should not be paying even close to £40m for an unproven 20 years old! Tell Villa to f* off and move on
Totally agree with all this, and when you put it in writing, yes, 3 30+ strikers is a tad ‘dad’s army! – if only I was in my 30s!!
The Villa guy worried me from the start and no club can justify that price for somebody who we’d be taking a chance on, and have him throwing his toys out the pram at the first opportunity. I’m sick of that.
I mean 40 million plus a huge chunk of the sell-on fee etc is something we surely can’t be serious about?
A loan deal for Fullkrug could work really well. He is very skillful and if he can be clever he would intimidate so many defenders! He’s made of granite. H’s also used to coming on as an impact sub for both Dortmund and Germany and I’m not sure (could be wrong) any club would be offering him a guaranteed starting spot
Man Utd (yes I know were not them) paid £70m for Hojlund who was the same age but had never played in the PL before. We signed Scamacca for £35m on the basis of one good season in Serie A. Turns out he couldn’t settle in this country. We know at least Duran is settled and has some PL experience, even if not loads. Should mean he doesn’t need too much of a settling in period.
I’m not saying you’re wrong necessarily about the price, but it’s where the market is at for POTENTIALLY top centre forwards.
Factor in also that the deal is between PL clubs, that adds another premium. Would the Serie A, Ligue 1 or La Liga equivalent of Kilman cost £40m?
What a complete bull* story from start to finish.
Did we expect anything else.
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You say that but who was running this story? Looks to me like most of it has been made up and fueled by this site and all the other gossip-mongers who want to appear important and for clickbait.
With our club and ownership, we will never know. We could have shown an interest or never that keen.
Stopped reading at HITC
I did not like the look of the petulant 20 year old from the start. He’s 20 and thinks he’s God’s gift. Fullkrug is the ready made article and at 31 is at his peak. It may well be that Antonio is off to Saudi for the final pay day he craves.
With the money saved we can buy a top class centre half to play alongside Kilman and plug the big hole in our defence, which is our real weakness.
We do need a younger striker. One that has blistering pace please!
I’m off to Tampa for the Palace game. Let’s hope it’s better than the Wolves match. (And not as wet)
I live in Tampa Bay and will be right there with you. But, I’m afraid we have rain in the forecast though we can hope. This is a bad time of year for thunderstorms and monsoon downpours here in Florida. Especially early to mid evening. Tampa is also the lightning capital of the world. We get a lot of lightning in these storms so it’s smart money to respect the authorities when they call a Code Blue.
Byyyye
Rumour has it that it’s WH that agreed a price but Sullivan tried to reduce it because he considered it OTT for an unproven 20 year old.
Sullivan may be right but at some stage he needs to learn to trust his technical team’s judgement otherwise we will never be consistent challengers for top 6.
I’m in Florida to see our games here but it’s painfully obvious we are still a long way from being ready to start our PL challenge.
Pleased we are walking away! Let Duran kick off at Villa and see how much his price drops next summer.
The German could be a good short term solution but Yilmaz and Wahi would be more long term and exciting signings.
It’s obvious what’s happening here, a gentleman’s agreement to get the deal sorted on the Monday morning after we play Villa. Just a hunch
Completely agree.
We spend to much time on particular individuals, Lingard (second time)/Maguire/Duran, end up going round in circles and getting nothing.
Time is special when it comes to whu transfers as they don’t have a lot of it.
Still looking l/bk, c/bk, left winger who can play across front line.Pity missed Jota Silva for £8.5m (must be able to beat Forest).
Rbk looks to be sorted, AWB, hopefully.
I think this is the best decision.
We’ve wasted to much time on this bloke.
But time is ticking
If he stays at Villa he could find himself 3rd choice behind Watkins and Felix (assuming they still go ahead with that signing).
I’ve never been convinced that Duran is the right signing for us anyway, especially at the figures quoted.
Oh Blogger, you Drongo!
One word in and an error on grammar 🙂
Oh Blogger, you Drongo!