West Ham takeover: US super-billionaire to help Potter wrap up first summer signing
West Ham United’s season has been quite the write-off.
Since crashing out of the FA Cup in early January, the Hammers have had nothing to play for other than to finish in a respectable position in the Premier League.
Due to how bad Southampton, Leicester and Ipswich have been, relegation has never been that much of a concern in East London. But with such little pressure on Graham Potter’s men to perform, the Irons still only find themselves 15th in the league standings, with their win over now-16th Manchester United finally allowing them to break the 40-point mark.
West Ham’s season finished really early, and that should have allowed head of recruitment Kyle Macaulay to get a head start on the summer transfer window, putting irons into the fire for Potter to be able to have his squad assembled in time for pre-season training in July.
Daizen Maeda linked with West Ham move from Celtic
Celtic star Daizen Maeda has recently emerged as a summer target for West Ham.
On Sunday (11 May), Caught Offside reported that the Hammers are preparing a “substantial” bid for the Japan international, who is valued at £25million by Scottish champions Celtic.
Crystal Palace are reportedly eyeing up an offer for the left-winger as well, with Fulham, Brentford, Crystal Palace and Championship title-winners Leeds also credited with an interest.
Maeda would be an interesting buy for West Ham.
| Appearances | Goals | Assists | Yellow Cards | Red Cards | |
| Daizen Maeda | 49 | 33 | 12 | 4 | 1 |
The former Yokohama F Marinos star has been electric in Scotland, scoring 62 times and supplying 28 assists in 156 appearances across all competitions.
This season, he’s bagged a whopping 33 goals and 12 assists – 45 direct goal contributions in 49 outings.
And sure, the English football fans will point to the fact that a lot of his goals have come against teams like St Johnstone, Dundee and Motherwell. However, in the Champions League this season, Maeda found the back of the net against Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich and Club Brugge, while on home turf, he’s scored three times against Rangers.
Robert Kotick could revolutionise West Ham attack
West Ham are likely to need reinforcements for their attack in the summer transfer window.
Lucas Paqueta has been fighting to save his career after being charged with gambling offences and Mohammed Kudus – who has not had the best of seasons – has been strongly linked with a move to Saudi Arabia.
Crysensio Summerville’s debut season at the London Stadium has been fraught with issues and Luis Guilherme has played just 128 minutes of Premier League football since his £25million move from Palmeiras last year.
Maeda would be a welcome addition when all things are considered.
West Ham have spent a lot of money in recent years but they could be getting a boost to their coffers soon with a mystery US businessman in talks to buy the Gold family’s 25.1 per cent stake in the club.
ExWHUEmployee has made it very clear that it’s unknown who the Stateside buyer is and that nothing is advanced just yet.
However, there are some Americans who’ve previously been linked with buying into the Hammers and former Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick is one of them.
He reportedly has a net worth of £5.2billion after selling his company to Microsoft in October 2023 for roughly £60billion.
Profit and Sustainability Rules are certainly something to keep in mind but if Kotick was to own a quarter of West Ham United, the backing of him, Daniel Krestinsky and David Sullivan should ensure that there’s a whole ocean of cash to spend for years to come.