West Ham did not sign Wout Weghorst in January because of his anti-vax stance
West Ham did not make a move for Dutch international Wout Weghorst in January due to his outspoken anti-vaccine stance.
According to ExWHUemployee, the Hammers were keen on signing a striker but allowed Weghorst to be snapped up by Burnley.
The club are believed to have a very strong pro-vaccine stance and do not want to sign players that are outspoken against it.
Ex wrote, "We chose not to sign Burnley’s new forward Wout Weghorst for off the pitch reasons.
"We can now speculate that these reasons were because he is a very out spoken anti-vaccination figure. It is rumoured that the club do not want to sign anyone with this stance."
Weird one
Vaccine politics are one thing and recruitment, another.
If he was the only striker that the club could sign and this was the reason they didn't sign him, then it's quite bizarre.
It's good to have strong vaccine policies at clubs, but if Weghorst could stop being outspoken about vaccines, he surely would not have ruffled any feathers.
Until the recent update, nobody even knew or cared about his stance on the jabs.
He has hit the ground running at Burnley and has proven to be an upgrade on Chris Wood.
The New Zealand international was sold to Newcastle for twice the money Weghorst was signed - showing how good the Clarets are at business.
In other West Ham news, the club want to sign a ‘Brilliant’ Chelsea player who will tick a major box for David Moyes