It’s getting very late in the transfer window – even for our club Last Minute FC – but I fear we may have missed a trick in not trying to move on the player who was in effect our first acquisition in this agonising summer transfer window – Jean-Clair Todibo.
The French defender had joined us from parent club Nice in August 2024 – initially on loan – but with a built-in obligation to buy at the end of the 2024/25 season. An obligation we executed this summer for a reported fee of £35million. It was a significant amount of cash for a player who had hardly set the world alight in his time in claret and blue last season – and has started this season in a similar haphazard way.
Hooked at half time in our last game against Chelsea, Todibo drew this post-match critique from former Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill: “They have a lad called Todibo playing in the middle; he was off at half time. He’s cost £35m, I think. He was on loan last year, and he wasn’t all that good, then you buy him for £35m. He’s got a lot to do. He hasn’t got a defensive thought in his head for a central defender.”
I like O’Neill – I think he talks a lot of sense. He’s got it spot on with Todibo – and right now, when we have a defence leaking goals like a colander and we’re crying out for a defender who can do the basics and simply defend, Todibo is a luxury we can’t afford.
Ok I know Nayef Aguerd, who may or may not be with us at the end of this window, and Max Kilman who I’m certain will be with us for a while yet, have been complicit in the amount of goals we’ve shipped. But I feel at least they are defenders who can defend - Todibo isn’t, as O’Neill succinctly pointed out.
Todibo had previously joined Barcelona in 2019 on a free transfer, but failed to impress and was loaned out first to Schalke in January 2020 before another loan move to Benfica in October of the same year. Five months later he was on the move again, this time to Nice on another loan.
It should be pointed out both Schalke and Benfica had ‘options’ to purchase the player – at €25million and €20million respectively. Neither chose to take up their options. Nice, on the other hand, did – for a much lower risk of €8.5million. Which enabled them to make a nice little profit when we came along and handed over our £35million a couple of months ago.
Manchester United were said to be interested in Todibo when we took him on loan and it was suggested their interest carried through the season. They were again in the frame when we signed him permanently and there was a suggestion we might be open to ‘flipping’ him straight on to Old Trafford.
That clearly didn’t happen. Whether we would have got back our £35million, who knows – but whatever we recouped would, in my opinion, be better used to get ourselves someone who could play at the other end of the pitch as a striker.
Todibo is far too much of a showman for me, someone who takes far too many chances in an effort to make himself look good. A player who goes wandering off, as O’Neill rightly highlighted, seemingly oblivious of the gaps he’s leaving behind him.
Whereas what West Ham need right now are a couple of good, old-fashioned, central defenders. No frills, nothing fancy, just able to do the simple things effectively. Craig Dawson was a prime example. What Graham Potter wouldn’t give for someone like him at this point in time.
I actually believe with someone like Dawson alongside him we would see a more solid and much improved Kilman. Max was a rock at the back for Wolves – a previous manager at Molineux Nuno Espirito Santo described him as “a very good football player, a centre-half with quality.” So there’s a decent defender in there I’m sure.
Potter just needs to find the right combination, the right pairing, to unlock that ability again. The key to that happening isn’t with Jean-Clair Todibo alongside, I fear.
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