West Ham in familiar transfer strategy
If—and I do mean if—the recent comments attributed to Slavia Prague president Jaroslav Tvrdík are true, then West Ham appear to be in trouble.
To paraphrase, Tvrdík has effectively accused the Hammers of dragging their feet over the signing of 20-year-old defender El Hadji Malick Diouf.
The root of Slavia Prague’s frustration seems to be that they’ve already agreed to sell the player to West Ham. As a result, Diouf was removed from their pre-season schedule, with the club planning for life without him. It’s believed that the player has agreed personal terms with the Irons—so this should be a straightforward deal.
But according to Tvrdík, West Ham are fully aware of the €20 million price tag and have still failed to meet it. The frustration has now reportedly reached boiling point, with Slavia preparing to reintegrate Diouf into their first-team squad.
Macaulay has identified targets
Groundhog Day Transfer
Unfortunately for West Ham, this isn’t new—and it’s eerily similar to the failed pursuit of Jhon Durán last season.
This window was always going to be pivotal, with Graham Potter and Kyle Macaulay tasked with identifying new talent. Presumably, it’s up to David Sullivan and/or Karren Brady to close the deals. And if we’ve already done the scouting, what’s the holdup?
Once again, the club seem to be testing the patience of the selling side—and fans have seen this move far too many times. From lowball offers to slow negotiations, rival owners have called out West Ham’s approach time and again.
In truth, I don’t know if Diouf is the next big thing—but someone at the club clearly does. He’s been identified as Emerson’s successor, so why risk missing out?
After selling Mohammed Kudus to Spurs, confidence in the board is already on thin ice. Fans are not in the mood for another slow-motion failure in the market. Diouf might not be a glamour name, but if we lose him because of another breakdown in negotiations, it won’t be easily forgiven.
How have we managed to end up in this situation even though we’ve had the significant financial advantage of selling our ground and getting a 60k stadium on very, very favourable terms?
Something has gone badly wrong.
We all know the club is in trouble and we all know where the problem is. The board, and it’s leadership. They have no idea what to do, there is no plan B when plan A goes off the rails, and plan A goes off the rails more often than not due to board decisions. We will have no major signings by the last week of the transfer window then we will pay over the top for players because clubs don’t want to sell with no chance of replacing before the window closes.Next window will have the same cry of we are broke. Sulivan and his crew need to move on
Just a gentle warning POTTER MAY WALK SOON
It’s time for c&h to show my posts, and to admit the board incompetence.
Sullivan doesn’t want the best for West Ham, only the best for his wallet.
Really? I didn’t realise you were the boss of Claret and Hugh. Consider this: If you don’t post obscene, abusive or offensive remarks, maybe you’ll get some more posts published. Maybe.
Imagine this!! Sullivan insists on only dealing with his favoured agent. With any successful transfer the favoured agent bags quite a few million of the clubs money. Oh thanks for the business Dave, here’s your cut. Blimey! Imagine if that sort of thing happened 😮😮
Westham don’t have a competent negotiator . Westham continually over spend on sometimes completely the wrong players as well as selling for way to cheap . Steidten was guilty of overpaying for both Guilherme and Fulkrug and originally came from Leverkusen where he was just a scout . Westham need a seasoned competent DOF to properly manage all things football and in addition a specialist negotiator . It’s inevitable that the current board will run Westham down to the Championship and perhaps lower with their old fashioned approach to running a club .
He is off to Monaco, not that it matters as this is classic Sullivan. Nothing changes in the way he conducts business and we will scratching around a couple of days before the window closes looking at aging has beens or £5m never will be’s
Trying not to get wound up about all this as we don’t know what is going on behind the scenes but it is hard work following this club at times. All that stuff about the Directors putting money in was presumably a load of nonsense but we at least need to strengthen with the Kudus money and not let our top targets slip through our fingers. Fine playing hardball if you have decent alternatives lined up but it can be really dumb otherwise.
I’m not investing in the crap this window, we know how it’s going to be, as if deranged. So that’s what I’m expecting. The way we carry on is deranged, that is the word for it.
Sullivan might be a self made millionaire,but is one of the worst businessman in football. Same old same old it’s so embarrassing!
How on earth can we be skint something is very wrong within the club if that’s the case,if deals are on the table then the only reason we are not committing is that we had no intention from the beginning and if so we deserve what’s coming then sack the board for pure incompetance
We buy players not suited to the manager’s set-up, or bring in new managers who don’t know how to coach our top signings. So we end up selling players for less than their true value, because we’ve made them look bad. Added to that accepting overvaluations by sellers and undervaluations by buyers and you have a sure fire recipe for bankruptcy.
Money in dwarfs pocket not gonna buy anyone I think we’ll be relegated with record low points Potter will be sacked by xmas sully don’t give a c–p about our wonderful team history sell up and take gbk with you
Exactly right every word. Sullivan just cannot do this he keeps fouling it up.
We need a serious DoF with funding more than any player. The contrast with Steiden could not be more stark, he got every player he was requested or allowed to.
It’s just unbelievable how little progress there is day by day and how little communication. The club seems oblivious to the black storm clouds hanging over it.