West Ham fans have been in uproar ever since it was first reported that Mohammed Kudus ‘only wanted Tottenham.’
Contrary to what Tottenham fans claim, West Ham and Spurs have a bitter rivalry. That extends to boardroom level, too, with it being common knowledge that David Sullivan and Daniel Levy do not like doing business with each other.
The last player to leave east London for Spurs was Scott Parker in 2011. West Ham had just been relegated under Avram Grant and Parker, club captain at the time, had been crowned Hammer of the Year for a third consecutive season – the first player to do so since Sir Trevor Brooking between 1976 and 1978.
While that transfer hurt West Ham fans, Scott Parker left the club with the respect and status amongst the fanbase still relatively intact. He didn’t force a move and even played West Ham’s first four games of the Championship season before sealing his move. Ever the professional, he left with his head held high.
Fourteen years later and we’re here again. Only this time, Kudus leaves east London under a cloud of disappointment, betrayal and disdain.
Scott Parker West Ham
When news broke on Wednesday that a £55m deal had been agreed for the Ghana international, Hammers fans took to social media in anger. There were serious question marks over the agreed price for Kudus’ services, with many claiming we’d sold the 24-year-old to our arch rivals for a discount.
Spurs fans appear to be enjoying every minute of it, while equally claiming that West Ham are irrelevant to them. In doing so, they conveniently overlook the irony in their enjoyment.
But is there really any reason for West Ham fans to be upset? Indeed, it’s never nice to sell a player to your rivals, but should only really apply to players who are considered to be one of your best performers who bring something to the team no other player can.
Losing Parker to Spurs in 2011 meant we lost a leader, a tenacious midfielder and a reliable, consistent performer.
In Kudus, all West Ham have done is lose a speed merchant who blows hot and cold, struggles to know when to pass to his teammates and seems to only look up for it against so called ‘lesser’ opposition.
Over two full seasons at London Stadium, the winger scored 19 goals in 80 first-team games. Only four of those goals came against a ‘top-six’ side. Of his 10 assists, only two game against the top-six.
Kudus goal v Freiburg
His maiden season was impressive and gave everyone hope that we’d unearthed a gem who would eventually fire us back into the top six or potentially fetch us another £100m-plus transfer fee. But one good season is all we managed to enjoy.
Last season, he managed just five goals and four assists in 35 appearances. He started 33 of those games. That kind of form suddenly had many wondering whether we would even find a buyer for him this summer. He was that poor.
So why the hate over the £55m we’ve sold him for? In truth, it only sounds cheap because of his unreasonably high release clause of £85m.
West Ham fans should be looking at this deal very differently than they are right now.
Firstly, we’ve made around £17m profit on the £38m we paid Ajax for him two summers ago. West Ham’s record at selling footballers for any kind of profit is almost non-existent, so that’s a bit of a win straight away.
Then there’s Kudus’ attitude. Reports have emerged to suggest he was late for training twice this week before officially handing in a transfer request. Given West Ham returned to pre-season training on Monday, that likely means he was late every single day of pre-season. Regardless of whether you want to leave or not, that’s not the sort of attitude that wins anyone much respect.
But he has history and we should’ve seen this coming. In 2022, amid heavy links with a move to Everton, Kudus refused to train for Ajax. That move obviously fell through and he eventually got his move to the Premier League a year later, but there were early signs that the winger was all too happy to down tools if he needed to.
Finally, there’s the fact that, quite frankly, he isn’t as good as everyone thinks he is. At 24, there is indeed plenty of time for him to improve and reach the potential we know he has. But right now, he hasn’t done much to show anyone during his time in England that he’s worth the £55m Spurs are about to spend on his signature.
It’s believed West Ham are convinced Jarrod Bowen is a better right winger and that Graham Potter doesn’t think Kudus is good enough to play through the middle in the Premier League. We’ve not seen enough of Kudus in a central position to know whether that latter statement is true, but there can be absolutely no arguement against the former.
Kudus and Bowen
Jarrod Bowen is the better player on the right wing. In fact, Bowen is the better player. Period.
Good players are able to adapt, even when playing slightly out of position. It might take some time, but they can adapt their game and still find themselves to be effective.
Where Bowen is concerned, he has been made to fill in as a striker for large parts of the past two seasons, yet he’s still chalked up 34 goals and 19 assists in that time. Exactly 50% of those goals came while he wasn’t playing in his favourite right-wing position, including a hat-trick against Brentford. So, the fact he’s not always played in his favourite position yet still delivered such impressive attacking returns says all you need to know about his quality.
Kudus, on the other hand, scored just five of his 19 goals while playing out of position. He regularly struggled to make an impact from the left and only really looked interested when playing on the right.
With all that in mind, it’s difficult to see how the £55m fee for Kudus can be anything other than great business for West Ham. They’ve cashed in and made a profit on a player who isn’t versatile, has only scored five goals in the last year and has shown absolutely zero professionalism in the process.
West Ham fans should be warning Spurs fans this: they’ll be raving about Kudus one week and then be pulling their hair out the next. It’s likely they’ll be doing both over the course of a single game.
It’s never nice to sell players to a rival, but knowing you’ve got the better deal softens the blow immensely. West Ham are by far the real winners here.
Now our transfer window can really get started.