Thursday has seen a rather intriguing story in Italy appear involving West Ham United and a failed move for an Uruguayan centre-back.
It comes from Gianluca Di Marzio, who tells the story of how Joaquín Sosa made it to Bologna from Nacional for €1.7m.
It all started with Hibernian, who were the first to make an offer and were close to buying, but the Italian journalist explains the Scottish side then pulled out ‘at the last moment’ because of problems arising surrounding a ‘payment they had to receive’.
That’s when Spartak Moscow came in, their proposal was ‘economically good’, and there was even an agreement ‘between the player and the club’.
This is when West Ham are involved, because ‘during the negotiation, the English FA blocked a money transfer of a deal from Spartak’ to the Hammers because of ‘motives related to the war’.
That’s most likely the pending payment for Alex Kral, which the Russian side are still expecting, but West Ham claim they cannot pay due to the current sanctions.
This left Spartak ‘without liquidity’, and while they did offer to spread the cost for Sosa over four six month instalments, that’s when Bologna swooped in and agreed a deal with all parties.
So, it appears West Ham’s inability to pay Spartak for Kral led to the Russian side missing out on a centre-back.
