What Exactly Is Jorge Mendes Bringing To West Ham?

By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)

Let me be honest. I couldn’t tell you whether Gustavo Sá was good, bad or indifferent. Despite him holding all sorts of records in Portugal for appearances by an unspecified age which escapes me and captaining Portugal’s Under-21 side, I honestly wouldn’t have recognised him if he’d walked past me in the street.

However, once the Portuguese press began their frenzied transfer speculation, informing anyone willing to listen that Sá was about to join West Ham, I sat up and took notice.

After all, the Hammers are in desperate need of a playmaker, among other positions. Reports from his homeland were certainly encouraging. Blessed with an eye for a defence-splitting pass and the ability to play in a couple of midfield positions, he sounded just the ticket.

Where is the Mendes advantage?

The Brucie bonus in all of this was that his agent is none other than Jorge Mendes. Yes, the very same close friend of Nuno Espírito Santo who brought Pablo to the club for an eye-watering £20 million in January.

Mendes is, of course, football’s ultimate super agent, representing some of the biggest names in the game as well as many of the sport’s brightest young talents.

Now, you’ll have to excuse my naivety, but I’d assumed Mendes’ friendship with Espírito Santo, together with his involvement in West Ham’s transfer business, might allow the club to tap into some of the outstanding talent on his books.

After all, the agent has no doubt made a pretty penny from West Ham over the past two summers through the transfers of his client Mateus Fernandes and, of course, the £20 million signing of Pablo. Bizarrely, Gil Vicente reportedly received only around £7-8 million of that fee.

One-way traffic?

Given Mendes’ close friendship and working relationship with Nuno, was it really too much to expect West Ham to benefit from the bromance with the odd talented player or two?

At the moment, it feels as though the relationship has cost the club a significant amount of money without delivering any obvious advantage in return.

Of course, Sá is perfectly entitled to choose whichever club he wants, and as Matt pointed out in his earlier update, the player never really fancied dropping into the Championship.

Funny that.

It never seemed to bother the multitude of Mendes clients who were happy to join Wolverhampton Wanderers when Nuno was in charge there… in exactly the same division.