Finally it seems the phoney war is over – the gloves are off- call it what you will but the West Ham summer transfer window bursts into life with real bids for real players.Not before time! Instead of waiting for the Mohammed Kudus negotiations to bear fruit West Ham have got stuck in.
One of the Hammers’ long standing midfield targets has finally got the Irons from ‘being linked’ to ‘being busy trying to BUY’: According to in-the-know [Fabrizio Romano](https://x.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1940007928930398509) on his twitter page:
_“West Ham had a proposal rejected in the recent days for El **Hadji Malick Diouf** worth around €20m. SK Slavia Prague value the player at higher price with more clubs keen on signing him.”_
Crystal Palace already made efforts to sign the player in the winter as we wrote [earlier in the month](https://www.claretandhugh.info/talented-defender-hammers-aiming-to-succeed-where-palace-failed/)– described by _mirror.co.uk_ in January as “_sure to be one of the hottest young talents on the market”._
Exciting progress and we hope the Irons can succeed where Palace failed: Crystal Palace were so impressed they opened negotiations to buy him from Slavia Prague back in January 2025. Maybe because The Czechs themselves only paid £2.1 million for him under a year earlier, Crystal Palace refused to meet the £20 million valuation and stopped bidding at £12.5 million – looks like the Hammers have finally got the bit between their teeth.