Mohammed Kudus wanted to play with one West Ham United player before signing off on transfer
Mohammed Kudus sought assurances from West Ham that Lucas Paqueta would remain at the club in the summer, according to The Athletic.
The Ghana international joined United in a £38.2million deal in August after their third offer was accepted by Ajax [The Athletic].
Kudus was heavily linked with Brighton and Hove Albion and Chelsea at the same time, as well as unnamed clubs from Saudi Arabia.
Writing for The Athletic [18 December], Roshane Thomas outlined the one guarantee Kudus wanted before joining West Ham.
“[Tim] Steidten made a convincing sales pitch, but there was only one issue: Kudus wanted to know if he would be playing alongside Lucas Paqueta, who was the subject of interest from Manchester City.
“Steidten assured Kudus that he and Paqueta would play together and that he would not receive less playing time if he joined.”
Deadly partnership
Kudus and Paqueta are two players many would have expected to be plying their trade at top four clubs in the Premier League, and that may well have been the case in different circumstances.
In Paqueta’s case, the betting scandal that emerged late in the transfer window effectively forced Manchester City’s hand as they opted to instead look elsewhere.
City’s loss is very much West Ham’s gain, and Sunday’s (17 December) 3-0 win over Wolves showed exactly what Paqueta and Kudus can achieve once they have fully gelled – if they have not already done so.
Kudus scored his first Premier League brace, bagging both of those goals in the first half, with each assisted by the equally-as-impressive Paqueta.
With nine goals in 21 appearances, it is fair to say Kudus has hit the ground running since arriving in English football. Paqueta, meanwhile, has nine direct goal involvements in 23 outings.
There is no reason why the pair cannot continue adding to their respective tallies and form one of the most deadly attacking tandems anywhere in the Premier League.
In other West Ham news, a journalist has made a prediction over Kudus’ future after what he saw at the weekend.