West Ham United deserve praise for their decision to buy Edson Álvarez as a replacement for Declan Rice in the summer.
That’s according to journalist Henk Spaan, who believes Ajax should be criticised for their decision to sell and replace him with Benjamin Tahirovic.
Álvarez arrived at the London Stadium in a €38m move from Ajax in the summer as a replacement for Rice after he left for Arsenal in an even bigger money move.
The Mexican had been starring at Ajax for several years after a €15m move from América in 2019 and had regularly been linked with a move away since without anything coming to fruition.
Indeed, he had been heavily linked with a move to Borussia Dortmund before he ended up at West Ham, an indication of his standing following his performances at Ajax.
His performances for West Ham have not gone unnoticed back in the Netherlands, where Spaan has been following along and now thinks Ajax will consider his departure, and the moves they made to replace him, something of a disaster.
“What a difference in purchases between Ajax and West Ham,” he said in Het Parool.
“They sold Declan Rice, who became a key player at Arsenal within three months, and they bought Álvarez, Kudus and Ward-Prowse. Ajax sold, among others, Álvarez, Kudus, Timber and Bassey and bought Tahirović for Álvarez.
“You rarely see such a big difference in quality as between the footballers Álvarez and his successor Tahirović. Tahirović can’t help it if he falls short.
“He just lacks the genetic material. He also lacks input from the bench, but no one in England would argue that Moyes, Álvarez’s coach, is a tactical genius.”
