By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
West Ham have placed a huge £50 million valuation on El Hadji Malick Diouf as Sunderland join the growing list of clubs attempting to prise the defender away from the London Stadium.
Personally, I don’t want West Ham to sell him, but if the Hammers are eventually tempted into doing business, demanding £50 million for a player signed for around £20 million only a year ago is exactly the stance the club should be taking.
The latest update comes courtesy of The Guardian, who report that Sunderland have made a £40 million bid for Diouf but West Ham are demanding another £10 million before allowing him to leave.
As The Guardian put it: “Sunderland have put a figure on him with a £40m bid”, before adding that West Ham want £10 million more.
Diouf would be open to leaving West Ham but Nuno wants him to stay
Diouf open to West Ham exit
The news follows Brentford’s interest only two days ago, when it is believed a £35 million plus add-ons deal was discussed.
Claret & Hugh attempted to verify the truth in the rumours and, when we spoke to our top transfer source, they told us:
“I think the player [Diouf] is open to leaving West Ham.”
That represents quite a shift from earlier in the summer when C&H were informed that Nuno Espírito Santo wanted to keep Diouf as part of his Championship squad.
Clearly, the sort of money now being discussed has the potential to change things.
West Ham certainly know how to sell
As I’ve mentioned previously, there appears to be little point in West Ham harvesting even more transfer funds when it would appear we’re struggling to spend the transfer budget we currently have.
That said, the club’s stance of only accepting top dollar for Diouf certainly mirrors the policy shown over the sales of Crysencio Summerville and Mateus Fernandes.
West Ham bought Diouf as a young player with the potential to increase significantly in value. If the club really can turn that investment into £50 million after only a year, then financially it’s difficult to argue with the return.
Unfortunately, with the Championship season about to start against Burnley on Sunday, West Ham appear to be turning into a club who are very good at selling players and not quite so good at bringing them in.
If Diouf is going to become the latest piece of the family silver to be sold, then £50 million should be the very least West Ham demand.
A good player but not worth 40 or 50M ! Works hard, a good crosser of the ball but caught in possession a few times and lacks confidence cutting inside.
That’s one problem solved but we’re left with the dross that nobody wants.
It should have been one in one out. But this is the West Ham horror show.
At anything North of £40m it’s a no brainer, he is quality going forward and an amazing athlete but he is a poor defender and a weak link defensively. For £50m we can probably recruit another incredible left back.
When and where? We couldn’t buy candy in a sweet shop
Nice to see we are not going to be bullied to selling a good young player
If we can get 50million then that is good business but at the same time we are telling clubs that we are no push overs just because we were relagated. It seems most players are going for 50million now, why not Diouf
If we keep him great
The one part of the team that’s weak is defence, we will never get out of the championship with bad defenders. If there contacted to the club keep them
Am I the only one here thinking we should use this example bid to point out the obvious? We should be using this interest to bring in better players in positions we lack depth via swap deals with additional cash. I would hate to see him go but if you look through Sunderland’s squad as an example and said to me we can take isadore, another competitive player to go with £35 million, I would say my bum would be far less sore from having to deal with loosing a player, for me, destined to have a long career at the top of the game. I really don’t want to see him go, period. But, it’s a long season and we need quality depth as well as funds and I actually quite like the look of isadore. Hopefully the boy stays but should we sell another part of our soul I would like to see players in exchange as we need depth.
3 players worth £200 million .I ask again how the hell were we relega🤬
Manager not good enough
At some point need to put kerb on transfer fees.
The continued increase puts top six further away from rest of league.
3-4 years top six will be paying £250m per player.
If someone pays over £35m for this donkey then we’ve pulled off an absolute blinder. My fear is we’ll actually scare off anyone foolish enough to part any money for him now we’ve slapped in a £50m price tag on him.