West Ham United withdraw interest in Stuttgart ace Sasa Kalajdzic
West Ham United are no longer pursuing a potential deal to sign Stuttgart striker Sasa Kalajdzic, according to European football journalist Jacque Talbot.
The six-foot, seven-inch monster suffered a truncated 2021-22 campaign in the Bundesliga, making just 15 appearances but he still scored six times and the Irons were in talks with his agent over a transfer worth £16-20million [Ryan Taylor].
But Talbot, formerly of the Times, has now reported via his personal Twitter account that West Ham have no interest in the Austrian international at this point but similarly didn’t rule out that a move later in the window was out of the question.
Sky Sports in Germany reported on 11 July that Erik Ten Hag was keen to bring the enormous target man to Old Trafford as he looks to make big changes to his Manchester United squad.
David Moyes may yet sign his own former Red Devil this summer with free agent Jesse Lingard high on his priority list for an attacking midfielder this summer [Express, 13 July, 8:17am].
Good decision
It is always quite fun to think about having a player so tall and aerially dominant in your side but it often comes at the detriment of the style of play you have to adopt.
If you aren’t going to play really direct and to Kalajdzic’s strengths then you will get very little out of a striker like him and that is the last thing Moyes wants to do with West Ham after such a strong two seasons at the London Stadium.
Our squad is far too talented to be playing hoof ball in the Premier League and a £16million move to sign such a player would almost force us to do so, quashing the talent we have in midfield at creating chances.
Withdrawing our hat from the ring is a very smart decision to have made as we can now let United make that error and find out the problems that come with a big lump like the Austrian.