West Hams’ negotiating last summer has come under fire this morning in a report which pulls no punches – as you’ll judge from the title. In a far-reaching article, which amongst other things suggests there are ‘eleven targets’ on Graham Potter’s radar this summer, national news outlet the Daily Mail pours scorn over one deal in particular that has become something of a millstone around West Ham’s collective neck.
In August 2024, Tim Steidten, Julen Lopetegui and David Sullivan masterminded – for want of a better word- a spending spree of £140 million plus on ten players. Tim Steidtens’ executive jet was ferrying incoming players to the club and several new recruits were pictured heading to London en route to signing contracts. One such recruit was Jean-Clair Todibo, snatched, we were told, from the jaws of a deal with Juventus to become a West Ham recruit.
Steidten, Todibo and the Jet
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In this mornings dailymail.co.uk the whole deal negotiated by – whichever – of the Hammers’ management team – is derided as ‘ridiculous‘. West Ham are :
“Not helped by the ridiculous situation Potter finds himself in over defender Jean-Clair Todibo, who the club are now obligated to buy for £36m after his loan spell from Nice, despite being signed under a previous manager and by a technical director in Tim Steidten no longer at the club. He is expected to be made available for sale as soon as the deal goes through.”
From JCT’s patchy performances this season West Ham will be fortunate indeed if the ‘ghost deal’ to sell – on Todibo to Manchester United for a back-to-back profit is in fact true.
Potter can at least then recruit his own men instead of starting pre-season with Lopetegui’s choices: Todibo’s was a signing of huge potential but a season down the line, the player seems to have his own fitness and concentration issues on the pitch together with off-field discontent. Maybe time to pass the parcel and make him someone else’s problem.
One of dozens of items in Potter’s pending file to be dealt with in the coming weeks.