West Ham United expect one to stay out of Said Benrahma and Pablo Fornals after overnight shocker
West Ham currently expect Said Benrahma to remain at the London Stadium while Pablo Fornals’ deal could still go through, according to Jacob Steinberg.
The Guardian’s sports reporter revealed via his personal X account (2 February) that the Hammers are braced for Benrahma to remain at the club “at the moment.”
Meanwhile, they maintain that the paperwork for Fornals’ transfer to Real Betis was properly submitted and there is still “a chance” that the deal for the Spaniard will be completed.
This development comes after an explosive overnight update with Fabrizio Romano reporting via X (1 February) that Lyon and Benrahma signed all the documents, but the Hammers didn’t submit details to the FIFA TMS (Transfer Matching System) properly.
Meanwhile, as reported by the Italian journalist on X on Friday (2 February), a deal for Fornals also fell through at the final moments, with Betis CEO Alarcon saying “Fornals deal has been affected by West Ham issues with the transfer documents.”
Shocker
It is hard to imagine if a transfer Deadline Day has ever ended quite as dramatically as this for one club.
To have two deals fall through in the eleventh hour on the same night is shocking, and West Ham have been left with egg on their face after this overnight blunder.
Fingers will be pointed and it might be hard to properly establish who is at fault, but the fact that the Hammers are linked to two failed transfers on the same night doesn’t make for good reading for the East London outfit.
It is an incredibly frustrating situation which has no winners. Both players will now be unsettled and unhappy in the changing room after seeing moves fall through, Betis and Lyon will, of course, be understandably frustrated while West Ham would have wanted the players off their books.
For everyone involved, hopefully, some clarity can be provided sooner rather than later.
In other West Ham news, Benrahma has been left “furious” with his family “stunned”.
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