Joe Ellis

Thu 2 June 2022 21:10, UK

West Ham United have missed out on the chance to sign teenage striker Adam Hlozek who has now joined Bayer Leverkusen in Germany.

According to ExWHUEmployee via his personal Twitter account, the reason why the Irons didn’t take up Daniel Kretinsky’s offer to bring him to the London Stadium [90min] is that David Moyes wasn’t sure he was right for the club.

The Czech Republic international had been offered to the Hammers by Kretinsky, who also owns Sparta Prague which is where he was plying his trade, but they have chosen not to follow up with that and he has left for the Bundesliga as a result.

ExWHUEmployee said that “Moyes apparently wasn’t convinced on him,” when a West Ham fan asked why the club hadn’t made a move for such a highly-tipped player.

Mistake

It is hard to judge how much Hlozek could have impacted the senior side immediately being so young and not having the experience of a league outside of his own nation’s which will have definitely played on the manager’s mind.

But he is only 19 years of age and anybody who has signed him on Football Manager over the years will tell you that he goes on to have a great career and on his day, he could tear an opponent to pieces.

Even for Leverkusen, this might not be a signing that makes the instant impact that will change the side in a flash but given a few months or maybe a year and he would be an almost guaranteed starter.

His ceiling is so high that very few people can even see it and the London Stadium might have been the perfect place for him to begin climbing that ladder to the top under the tutelage of Antonio and the watchful eye of Moyes there to offer all the off-field advice he needs.

In other West Ham news, it’s wonderful to see a couple of Hammers on England duty and the latest social media post of the two of them is great reading for supporters.

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