How do we explain this one, then? That’s what I keep thinking to myself...
In a sense, there are any number of ways to explain the decision to sell Mohammed Kudus for £55m. Based on his form and output during last season, £55m is a more than reasonable fee – even if it does fall £30m short of his release clause.
It’s a similar fee to what we’ve seen for the likes of Anthony Elanga, João Pedro and likely Morgan Gibbs-White move for this summer, all of which had far more fruitful seasons last term.
Plus, due to upholding our long tradition of largely dreadful recruitment in recent years, we’ve let the world know we need to sell to buy. Money from the Declan Rice sale has dried up, it seems we’ve got a loan to pay back, and Kudus was our only saleable asset.
If anything, in contrast to previous marquee summer signings Felipe Anderson, Seb Haller, Gianluca Scamacca or Lucas Paquetá, he’s the only one we’ll be turning a profit on.
With the money we’ve made, if we’ve any left after paying off Barclays – and Nice, after completing the mandatory £35m purchase of Jean-Clair Todibo, which on the evidence of year one looks like another overpayment to put it kindly, we need bodies. Outside of maybe wingers, there isn’t a position on the pitch you couldn’t make the argument needs strengthening.
Selling Kudus allows that, and gets rid of a potential issue in the camp with a player wanting to leave. You can’t really blame him for wanting out either.
We knew from the second we signed Kudus it was likely to be a two-year run, with a release clause specifically arranged for this summer, and you wouldn’t have found too many last season disappointed to lose him when stacked up with the figure he might be able to fetch – especially as the season rolled on, and he visibly became less and less interested. Selling was, undoubtedly, the correct move.
But then, there’s the other thing isn’t there. The Tottenham thing. Sure, sell him – but not to them!
Even that has an explanation. By the time Kudus’ transfer requests had come in, Tottenham were ‘the only show in town’. He didn’t want to move for the money of Saudi Arabia, instead his sole aim was Champions League football - which is fair enough. Tottenham were the only team offering that, and offering a sum we’d accept. Simple.
But again, it’s not that simple is it? You can make all the rational arguments in the world defending this deal, and they can all be perfectly valid. But then you can also take a step back and make this assessment.
Nine years after the supposedly transformational stadium move, two years after winning a European trophy and our all-time record sale, we’re in sell before we can buy scenario with just ONE saleable asset in the squad that we see as expendable and can turn a profit.
The whole world knows this because we’ve told them, and so we were forced to sell a starter to Tottenham - of all teams - for £30m below his release clause. Tottenham knew they had no competition, because we’d told the world that as well.
We’re using that money, paid over three years, to repay a loan taken out last summer to fund a substandard window and to go towards the mandatory signing of a centre back who failed to impress through the majority of his first season. All this to, touch wood, strengthen enough to finish about 15th.
In fairness, I might take 15th at the minute. It’s damning. How do we explain any of that? How are we in that position that we’ve scared everyone off, clearing the way for Spurs to pick up the pieces?
And sure, I stand by it – throughout last season I believed it was the right decision to sell Kudus this summer. There’s no two ways about it, he had a poor season and we could cash in. I also believed, however, that he’d be dramatically better wherever he ended up next season.
We’ve seen how good he can be. That first season, particularly before New Year, he was absolutely electric. Strong, quick, powerful, a brilliant finisher – notching eight goals and six assists across 33 Premier League games, with tangible contributions in Europe to throw in too.
Rumours of interest from Europe’s elite were warranted, but last season that return dipped to five goals and three assists from 32 Premier League appearances – with all but one as a starter, compared to six times off the bench the previous, more effective season.
It did appear to be a gradual downing of tools, but even last season it was tough to categorise Kudus for me at times – at least, until things really became lethargic from around February or March. Reason being, his raw power and strength mentioned before.
Even in games he seemingly couldn’t be arsed, at times he would receive the ball, shrug opposition players off, turn to drive forward and keep a ball he had absolutely no right to. More often than not, it looked like this was born out of being fed up, more than anything else – he’s got such talent, he could just get a bit pissed off and do something brilliant.
So what do I expect him to do at Tottenham? For one year at least, I expect him to be fantastic – and fully expect him to take a seat in front of the Bobby Moore Lower in September, as is his trademark, turning the faces in stands the same colour as our tops.
I wouldn’t be completely surprised to see a very similar trajectory at Spurs – one brilliant year, interest from the absolute elite in Europe, a regression year and a move to a PSG say, or a Liverpool. There’s no doubting he has the ability to do that.
As for the reception he’ll get, well – it won’t be great will it? And rightly so.
I understand from his perspective that he wanted Champions League football and Spurs were the only rider in the race – an option he wouldn’t even have to move house for. Even the "I only wanted Spurs" line I’m prepared to look past a tad.
There’s the fairly well-known context he’d have preferred any of Chelsea, Liverpool or Newcastle had they been in the fight, and the way football is in 2025 you know he’s not chosen to say that line – it’s a social media/marketing manager who saw what Romano had been tweeting and told him what to say.
If you’re at the point where you’re stood there wearing the shirt, you’re not going to kick up a fuss about the script you’re given.
And without wanting this to just sound like sour grapes, I don’t feel like we ever took to Kudus as a fanbase in the same way we have for other great players over the years, so that could soften the anger a tad. Maybe that’s more a personal thing, but it was the sense I felt.
He didn’t wear his heart on his sleeve in the Di Canio mould – more recently how a Vladimir Coufal would, or a Marko Arnautović – part of the stick he got when leaving undoubtedly just came down to how we had taken to him so much. Lucas Paquetá too has that level of passion which can on occasion mask underwhelming performances – albeit with the big grey FA investigation cloud hanging over it all.
Maybe too it’s how Kudus was good. You’d sit back in his first season and gawp at some of things he could do, but aside from a couple of moments it was largely just raw power and unnecessary flicks. It wasn’t the magical, get-you-off-your-seat kind of good like Paquetá can conjure up, or like Dimitri Payet and Manuel Lanzini could at their best.
He doesn’t have the homegrown card like a Mark Noble or Declan Rice either. He doesn’t noticeably run himself into the ground, like a Robert Snodgrass or Pablo Fornals. You don’t get the sense he’ll chuck himself in the way of anything, like a Craig Dawson, a James Collins or a Tomas Souček.
Similarly, he didn’t have many big, decisive moments like a Michail Antonio or Jarrod Bowen. He didn’t just seem to get it, like a Carlton Cole or an Angelo Ogbonna.
Now that’s not to say all of those names are better than Kudus. Technically, he’s probably better than the vast majority. But you’d struggle to put Kudus in a realm with any of them when it comes to being a fan favourite. We didn’t even really honour him with a catchy chant that travelled round the country.
In many ways a lot of this isn’t his fault – and naturally, a player coming in on a big price tag with big expectations is cut less slack. Plus, by the time Kudus came through the door we had battle scars in terms of big money signings not living up to their hype.
Further, with the insertion of a release clause two years into the deal and the language at the time, it felt like this would go one of two ways – he’ll either light things up and get a move in two years’ time, or go the same way of Anderson, Haller and Scamacca before him where we’re scrambling to recoup as much of his fee as we can.
In the same family as ‘never fall in love with a loan player’, maybe Kudus never felt like he was really ours. But he was. And if you ever do pull on a West Ham shirt, you should understand the next shirt you pull on shouldn’t be Tottenham’s.
Regardless of the circumstances, when you take a step back this remains a first team player who is reported to have submitted multiple transfer requests and outlined he wanted to join Tottenham. That is deserving of a difficult reception when he returns in lilywhite, and that is exactly what he will likely get.
In the grand scheme of receptions in a Tottenham shirt, you’d imagine it won’t quite be Jermain Defoe level, but a long, long way away from Michael Carrick-like applause.
But again, this case is a bit different. The reception will be just as much an indictment of the board as it is a reflection on Kudus.
As ever, you can go on for hours with criticisms of the senior figures at the club – this deal is just another notch against them, another straw on top of a long-since broken camel’s back. So I’ll try to stop myself before another full blown tirade on the board – and just contextualise why I feel they’ve made on the face of it a perfectly sensible transfer so difficult to stomach.
The last five players to move from West Ham to Spurs, with the exception of Jimmy Walker not seeing the pitch as a third-choice keeper in 2009, all came under the same circumstances. Freddie Kanouté, Jermain Defoe, Michael Carrick and Scott Parker all made the move either immediately after relegation, or while we remained a division below.
Naturally with relegation there is a need to sell, and vultures circle around your better players. They have the leverage, and players quite fairly want to play in the Premier League. Tottenham specifically have the advantage in that scenario where players shouldn’t have to relocate, and all things considered are usually an exciting move – they’d just come off the back of a Champions League campaign when Parker made his move.
Players can still control how they are consequently seen in east London though. Defoe got about a million red cards in between transfer requests before his January 2004 move. Carrick stayed on for a year to try and get us promoted back up, only leaving after play-off final defeat to Crystal Palace.
Kudus is more of the Parker mould, gradually downing tools as a move became more and more inevitable – except he didn’t have the credit in the bank that Parker did. There’s plenty that would disagree with me on the idea Parker’s effort ever dropped, too.
You will have noticed the elephant in the room here though. We weren’t relegated last season. Granted, we were crap. In many seasons we might’ve gone down, if it weren’t for three dreadfully poor promoted sides. But we stayed up.
In fact, we finished above Tottenham, who were just one place outside the bottom three. You can’t overlook the Champions League factor, but you can also break it down this way. Our recruitment and squad management has been so bad for a prolonged period of time that, in this moment, our level of desperation to sell to a Spurs team we finished above is equal to that of a post-relegation fire sale.
That is so, so damning. How can we possibly explain that?
We’re still a Premier League side. Champions League or not, if Tottenham Hotspur want one of our key players, our only asset we’re willing to part with, they should have to pay through the nose. The ‘Tottenham tax’ that was mooted and never seemed to exist absolutely must exist. For Spurs, we can’t be selling for a fair price – it needs to be astronomical for them to be in the conversation. That’s the way it is.
Sunderland aren’t selling to Newcastle, same division or otherwise. Birmingham aren’t selling to Villa. Everton wouldn’t to Liverpool. Tottenham wouldn’t to Arsenal, or Chelsea for that matter.
I know us and Spurs is a slightly different rivalry. While the protestations there is no rivalry are clearly not the case (the "I only wanted Spurs" dig a bit of a smoking gun there), it is undoubtedly more one-sided. But there is a deep, genuine rivalry and selling to Spurs should be an absolute last resort.
Some might call the Kudus deal a last resort, needing funds for our own business. Maybe, but not for me. Not for that price. We shouldn’t be in that position, and even if we are, selling to Spurs should never be that easy.
We shouldn’t be letting the world know we need to sell, and that Spurs have no competition for his signature. Which they secure, for what we’ve admitted to be relatively poor financial terms. It’s just so easy, and so frustrating.
And so, Kudus will get stick when he returns, but the real villain of the piece for me, once again, are those in charge. Some things never change.
As for us, where do we go from here? Squad-wise I truly don’t feel like we’ve lost a great deal. As good as Kudus will be for Spurs, he’ll never have been close to that good for us if we kept him.
Bowen is our one outstanding talent on the right side, and you’ve got to have belief we’ll get an injury free campaign from Crysencio Summerville, showing the quality he began to display before his season came to an end. More, the club seem to have real confidence there’s more to come from Luis Guilherme.
As for the rest of the pitch, that’s another matter entirely. That’s our one big money asset gone, with only lower cost sales of out-of-favour players like Nayef Aguerd or Maxwel Cornet to top the purse up.
If we are in sell to buy mode as the board insists, and if we’ve any money left from the first Kudus instalment after paying off Barclays and the Todibo fund, that’s potentially all we have to work with to strengthen the rest of the squad. Signing wall-to-wall Premier League quality with that money left over feels ambitious, unless the board’s messaging is not quite the truth – which, to be fair, is always on the cards.
If we’re taking them at their word though, things will need to get creative. And younger.
Graham Potter - and more specifically, Kyle Macaulay’s - recruitment has a great reputation, as we’ve seen from the production line during their time at Brighton. This is their first proper window, and now more than ever we’ll need them to find some low-cost gems.
Every bit as important is this being the time to lean into the youth we’ve got in-house. Ollie Scarles made brilliant strides last season and has to be trusted to start this season, particularly if Potter seemingly doesn’t fancy the idea of Emerson.
Freddie Potts has to be a part of the first team squad after two good loan spells, and to counter the age we’ve got in that part of the pitch – I don’t want a situation where Potts isn’t being given a chance over a Guido Rodríguez for example, if he sticks around.
If we can get some kind of contribution from other names like Callum Marshall or even Kaelan Casey, assuming they don’t head out on loan as expected, even better.
I know it’s player-dependant, but it does drive me a bit insane that youth doesn’t get such a chance. Harry Kane only got a chance because Roberto Soldado was injured. Marcus Rashford only got a chance when Manchester United were down all four centre forwards. When Chelsea had a transfer ban all of Reece James, Fikayo Tomori, Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham got chances and made some impact, in a difficult situation.
I understand clubs want big flashy signings to appease fans, but there should be a mixture with bringing through talent – sometimes it might be Reece Oxford, something it could be Declan Rice, but surely it’s worth more of a go - and now is the time to do it.
Finally, given the situation we’re in, a couple of sensible deals for established players wouldn’t hurt. I’m aware there’s some pushback and many might disagree, but maybe if Callum Wilson isn’t asking for astronomical wages that’s not a bad name on a free. Not as first choice, but we currently have one recognised centre forward who has come off an underwhelming, injury riddled year one.
Wilson has Premier League goalscoring pedigree and could play a role for a year or two – at the very least it stops him scoring against us. But if we make them moves, we have to have other irons in the fire, be it youth already in the building or promising names coming in from elsewhere.
That’s where we are. To summarise it all, this Kudus move is a conundrum – it can be easily explained but simultaneously, I don’t see how we can possibly explain it. How we can be in this position, this desperate at this point? But we are, that’s where our recruitment has got us, and now we’re in the hole we have to get ourselves out of it.
Naturally I don’t trust the board to do it, so at this stage we’ve got to hope Potter, Macaulay and the Academy production line can. Oh, and we’ve also got to hope Potter is a half-decent manager, that’s still a tad up in the air – but listen, one crisis at a time.
We’ll cross that bridge if and when we come to it – potentially when Mo Kudus is sat on an advertising board in Stratford come September. If eyes aren’t on the director’s box already, they very much will be then.
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