West Ham United furious with Leeds United move for Sonny Perkins, ‘underhand’ accusation made
West Ham United and Leeds United are set for a tribunal to agree a fee on Sonny Perkins’ transfer to Elland Road in the summer, according to The Athletic.
The news outlet reported on Thursday (10 November) that West Ham want a “good seven-figure sum” for the 18-year-old, who left the London Stadium at the end of last season when his contract expired.
The Hammers released an explosive statement when the England youth international left, saying they “strongly believe he was approached to sign for another club which led to him asking to be released from his scholarship at West Ham United”.
The Athletic now claims that the Irons “think Leeds were underhand in recruiting Perkins” but the Yorkshire club denies any wrongdoing and are only willing to pay around £750,000 in compensation for the teenager.
Not on
If Leeds have made an underhand approach to Perkins then this needs to be looked into.
While players are well within their rights to run down their contracts and leave at the end of them, clubs should not be tapping up teenagers who have barely started off their football careers to get them to move.
That’s not saying Leeds have done that but based on the statement West Ham released earlier this year and these latest findings by The Athletic, it’s easy to see what the London club thinks about the situation regarding Perkins.
It does sting a bit still that he’s gone.
West Ham fans across the capital and the rest of the country could see Perkins’ potential.
He’s gone to Leeds and had started well there too, annoyingly.
For him, we wish him all the best and we hope that he’s a success.
But we just hope that he doesn’t last long at Leeds and is poached by a club bigger than them with a bigger draw than them too.