Sky Sports pundit wowed by Mohammed Kudus news after Dharmesh Sheth’s live West Ham United update
European football expert Andy Brassell has told West Ham supporters “to be excited but patient” with Mohammed Kudus as the Premier League side close in on a deal with Ajax.
Dharmesh Sheth has reported that West Ham technical director Tim Steidten is in Amsterdam discussing a deal with Ajax, with the Irons encouraged a transfer can be finalised.
The transfer expert told Sky Sports Transfer Centre [17 August, 20:56]: “West Ham will try to get this transfer done as quickly as possible because there has been so much interest in this player throughout this window.
“We understand the player himself is open to the move and West Ham are getting encouragement that if a deal can be agreed with Ajax, Kudus will potentially come to the London Stadium.
“Would the technical director of a club go abroad to another club if he wasn’t getting encouragement somewhere along the line from the player that potentially he would come to the club?”
Brassell was asked for his views on the seemingly imminent transfer and said [17 August, 20:56]: “Be excited but patient. There’s an enormous amount of ability there.
“We’ve seen it with Ajax, we’ve seen it in the Champions League, at the World Cup. He’s got a great left foot and can play in a number of attacking positions, out wide or cutting in, is very imaginative and has been well coached from an early age.
“But he’s started relatively few Eredivisie games for Ajax. Fitness has been an issue. He got a knee injury when he first arrived and a lot of niggling issues that followed. I would like [West Ham] to bleed him in slowly.”
Fragile
Kudus started 19 of Ajax’s 34 league matches last season, with that at least an improvement on the four and eight games started in 2021-22 and 2020-21 respectively.
The Ghana international has missed 56 matches through injury or illness since joining Ajax from Nordsjaelland in July 2020 [Transfermarkt].
That includes a brief spell on the sidelines with a knock prior to the start of this season, although that clearly had little impact on the versatile attacker as he scored in Ajax’s opening Eredivisie game of the season last week, a 4-1 win against Heracles.
As Brassell rightly says, there is no doubting Kudus’ quality and what he can bring to West Ham’s forward line, which David Moyes has been eager to strengthen.
But keeping the 23-year-old fit is another issue, and something Moyes will have to be careful with when it comes to team selection.
With West Ham preparing for a third successive season of European football, there will be plenty of games to play this campaign.
Supporters will no doubt want Kudus to start as many of those as possible should he arrive, but taking a more patient approach could massively pay off in the long run.
In other West Ham news, the Irons have reportedly made a £40m bid for a Premier League striker.