Fabrizio Romano shares ‘Strange’ Mohammed Kudus to West Ham United update after £36m bid rejected
Fabrizio Romano has admitted that his latest update on Mohammed Kudus joining West Ham is “strange” after a £36m bid was rejected.
Writing on his Substack (23 August), the reliable transfer journalist reports that the Hammers had a bid rejected for the Ghana international that was worth more than a bid Ajax accepted from Brighton for the same player earlier in the window.
West Ham are now considering whether to go in with a new offer, but Ajax are anticipating “very big clubs” coming in for him before next week’s deadline and ultimately want to keep him at least until January if they can.
“Keep an eye as well on Mohammed Kudus – West Ham had a new bid rejected yesterday by Ajax,” he said. The bid was €42m (£36m), add-ons included, but Ajax said no.
“The strange thing is that this bid was bigger than the one they received from Brighton, which they accepted, so the deal was in place but didn’t happen because of the player.
“Now, West Ham are offering more but it’s been rejected. Why? Ajax hope to keep Kudus for one more season or at least until January, this is their biggest hope.
“But also, Ajax feel that in the final days of the window, some very big club could enter the race and offer big money for Kudus.
“They know there are clubs looking for that kind of player, they believe there could be more clubs in the market for Kudus, and this is why Ajax are not accepting €42m (£36m) from West Ham.”
Madness
Now West Ham signing Kudus would be excellent and if the club are willing to pay more then they should make that offer to get a deal over the line.
But if Ajax are playing games over their asking price for the attacking midfielder then we would be better off walking away from a deal at this point and focusing on other targets.
The deadline is now in sight and at this point the squad still needs strengthening, so we need to make quick decisions to avoid being led down a garden path and then ending up with nobody.
There are said to be alternative targets in play for the attacking positions and if it becomes clear that this deal is going to become too difficult, we’d be better off moving on to ensure the squad is in a position that is stronger than last season once the window shuts.
It would be great to bring him in, but ultimately the club is bigger than any one player and we have to put our interests first.
In other West Ham news, Hammers chief holds meeting with Euro giants to sign brand new striker.