VfB Stuttgart sports director Fabian Wohlgemuth has revealed he was not surprised to see defender Konstantinos Mavropanos join West Ham United this summer.
The director has been speaking to BILD regarding the transfer business at the German club this summer after several stars departed and something of a rebuild was undertaken.
Mavropanos was one of those to move on, joining West Ham in a €20m deal as David Moyes and co spent the money brought in from Declan Rice’s sale.
The Greek defender has proven to be a real coup for Stuttgart, who initially signed him on loan from Arsenal in 2020.
Fron that point onwards he developed into a key player, with the club electing to sign him on a permanent basis for €3.2m last summer.
They’ve now made a tidy profit on him with the deal to sell to West Ham, where the player will be hoping to kick on and prove himself in the Premier League following a disappointing first spell in England with the Gunners.
Wohlgemuth was sorry to see him go but admits he was not surprised by the transfer in the slightest, as Mavropanos has indicated a desire to move on.
“Both of them developed into national players with us and openly stated early on that they would like to take the next step,” he said.
“That was understandable and therefore didn’t come as a surprise to us. The changes were taken into account. Even at the time when we didn’t yet have any, there were offers for both of them.”
