Having sold Declan Rice to Arsenal, it was expected that West Ham United would come out wallet swinging on the transfer market.
However, the Hammers have taken their time, and the right replacements have been hard to come by, even if a deal for Edson Alvarez appears to be close to being done.
West Ham are going to pay Ajax Amsterdam somewhere near €40m for the Mexican player, who is expected to take Rice’s place in David Moyes’ squad, but that is seen like them overpaying over in the Netherlands, where Valentijn Driessen and Mike Verweij discussed the deal on the De Telegraaf podcast Kick-Off, relayed by Ajax Showtime.
The two journalists were somewhat taken aback by the €39m that the London club will pay for the player, and the former of the aforementioned duo didn’t hold back, firmly believing that it was a ‘very panicked’ move.
Verweij then somewhat agreed with his collaborator, although he wasn’t as critical of the midfielder.
He said: “You cannot imagine Kökcu going to Benfica for €30m and this being €10m more. Alvarez played a pretty reasonable season, but the fact that he was seen as the best player also says enough about Ajax’s past campaign.
“I do think he is a very good midfielder. For a long time, it looked like he would go to Borussia Dortmund, but that club pulled out. West Ham was less attractive in that respect, but the salary is huge and you play in the Premier League.”
While he did point out that Driessen does often call the player ‘mediocre’, he was keen to point out that despite this view, many teams were always interested, and therefore there is clearly something there that teams see in him.
At the end of the day, regardless of what pundits or journalists think, West Ham get their man and Ajax get their money, and that’s all they’ll care about.
