During every transfer window West Ham have developed a charming habit of admiring players from a safe, non‑committal distance only to watch them trot off elsewhere for fees that make you wonder whether someone at Rush Green misplaced the calculator.
This summer’s transfer window has similarly been frustrating so far and recent years have also offered a parade of nearly‑Hammers as the club repeat the seemingly endless, damaging cycle of ‘identify-enquire-pontificate-lose out”.
With an eye on different targets given the club are now playing in the second tier, I thought it would be interesting to see where some of the previous targets have found themselves…
Take Promise David, (main pic) remember him? The Canadian goal machine who turned the Belgian league into his personal highlight reel with 29 goals in 59 appearances for Union Saint‑Gilloise. West Ham tracked him across two windows, monitored him, admired him, and ultimately did nothing more than make an enquiry. Naturally, he’s now at Brighton (Tony Bloom owns both clubs) on a loan with an option to buy at £22m. Quelle surprise. He was an unused substitute in the win against Aston Villa.
Then there’s Zion Suzuki. In July 2025 West Ham reportedly lobbed in a €25m bid for the Parma goalkeeper a bid Parma rejected. The club then pivoted to Mads Hermansen, who happened to be the first choice of the then‑goalkeeper coach, Casper Ankergren. Fast‑forward 13 months and Suzuki rocks up at Aston Villa for £30m… they conceded four goals with the custodian on the bench against Brighton.
Taiwo Awoniyi is another forward the club were keen on back in January 2025. At the time, Nottingham Forest’s £20m valuation was laughed off as wildly unrealistic, and West Ham sensibly walked away. Fast‑forward to the present and that price has collapsed, allowing newly promoted Coventry City to nip in and pick him up for just £9m. A classic case of timing doing all the heavy lifting.
However the most annoying miss was Eli Junior Kroupi, and on this one West Ham aren’t at fault. They made a very impressive offer to his club Lorient, believed to be upto £35m according to a number of reports at the time. Yet ignored one minor detail, in that Bill Foley, Bournemouth’s owner also holds a minority stake in the French club. Shortly after a mere £10m secured a deal to take the striker to the South coast, currently valued at £80m with a contract that ties him down until June 2030.
Hopefully this window finally uncovers a few genuine gems, though I won’t be holding my breath. With a certain former board member now far less involved in the club’s day‑to‑day affairs, at least West Ham fans can relax knowing we won’t be subjected to that familiar line: “We tried …”
Let’s face facts, wherever the money is going, either the debt is far bigger than the reported 100m or someone is looking to a big share dividend it is NOT being spent on the team. We may not have been able to shop at the top table but if we had lifted our skirts at dam nearly every championship player we could have got the best of the rest given the size of our club. Let’s think hmm Lincoln or West Ham who would I prefer to play for ? Instead we have spent the princely sum of about 30m whilst halving the wage bill, offloading several wage drains, taking in a minimum 190m. Yep thats our board no matter who’s in charge.
Let’s face facts, wherever the money is going, either the debt is far bigger than the reported 100m or someone is looking to a big share dividend it is NOT being spent on the team. We may not have been able to shop at the top table but if we had lifted our skirts at dam nearly every championship player we could have got the best of the rest given the size of our club. Let’s think hmm Lincoln or West Ham who would I prefer to play for ? Instead we have spent the princely sum of about 30m whilst halving the wage bill, offloading several wage drains, taking in a minimum 190m. Yep thats our board no matter who’s in charge.
Ah, the west ham way
Let’s not mention Fernandes, Kudus, Summerville or even now, Diouf. The thick end of £100 million profit while websites complain about the club being badly run and panicking over our operating losses.
Then there are all those ‘worldbeaters’ that we chase, but get bought by others and turn out to be rubbish and disappear without trace,.
Sure WHU drop significant rickets like Fullkrug and Todibo, like all clubs do but we’re not quite the complete idiots you like to pretend we are.
“at least West Ham fans can relax knowing we won’t be subjected to that familiar line: “We tried …”. Really? I wouldn’t put money on that not becoming a tried and trusted West Ham cliche.
Nothing changes at this club does it? We need to take a leaf from the Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth recruitment model. We are stuck in the dark ages
We only seem to be offered players no longer wanted and whom are either having injury problems or attitude problems. EITHER WE CANNOT AFFORD TO HAVE . Look at Todibo !! Horrific signing
Once again Dudley is 100% correct. Wages, Agents, Players demands and contracts are all major obstacles in all transfers. Why is it that you guys keep implying it’s the owners or more often than not the manager who are the culprits. Try getting your information from people who really know what is really the situation. Please let’s get some positivity on here and get behind the club
MATT Having ties with some of these clubs Some of the supposed offers put out by our club never actually happened Now that worrying
We’re a club that have brilliant supporters who continue to follow a club with no desire or interest to succeed.
The only thing our club is good at is promising nothing and delivering nothing.
I’ve supported the club since 1978 and stop going 2014, I bleed claret and blue but am totally fed up with the year in year out complete disappointment of supporting them.
Why can’t we get a board who want the success for our club like we do 😩😏🙁
Let’s not mention Fernandes, Kudus, Summerville or even now, Diouf. The thick end of £100 million profit while websites complain about the club being badly run and panicking over our operating losses.
Then there are all those ‘worldbeaters’ that we chase, but get bought by others and turn out to be rubbish and disappear without trace,.
Sure WHU drop significant rickets like Fullkrug and Todibo, but all clubs do; we’re not quite the complete idiots you like to pretend we are.
I’m worried that the ghost of Sullivan is still lurking in the boardroom ? mind you still don’t know who is in charge at the moment ?
Maybe West Ham did reach out. Maybe their agents made it clear that the player had other plans or that the compensation package wasn’t what the club was prepared to pay. Or maybe they were just stories to fill the internet up? One of the key things people need to focus on is that wages are as important as transfer fees. If you look at a current squad the problem isn’t just the transfer fees we will need to write off its the wages. JWP is a classic example, in the last year of his contract his book value is largely written off but we are still paying him five million a year in wages. That money if he is not playing has no value. So remember that its likely that when we didn’t follow through with a player it doesn’t mean that we dropped the ball
Suzuki didn’t play for Villa in their first game.
The real problem is you guys make up the interest, then feed off each other and then have rose tinted glasses……
Absolutely spot on
Well said mate.