5th February 2026 Daniel Luker (@danielluker_)
By Louis Nixon
It was recently revealed that the Hammers had actually agreed to sign the forward from Crystal Palace, but complications caused the deal to crash. Whether he would have been a good choice remains an unknown.
West Ham United officially agreed a fee of £27 million for the English forward from Crystal Palace throughout the January window but a sudden turn of events led to the deal collapsing and ultimately resulted in the deal being buried and left to forget.
The 26 year-old in South London suffered a hamstring injury after the deal had been agreed, therefore West Ham decided not to pursue. In the event that the deal had gone through. A separate deal of Callum Wilson going the other way would’ve been discussed, but Glasner wasn’t too keen on having him.
The deal does make you wonder what could’ve happened, does that mean West Ham could’ve possibly had Pablo, Nketiah and Taty at the club all at the same time? If so, that’s fairly bizarre and it would’ve been interesting to see how that dynamic could’ve worked.
Overall, it’s certainly a strange situation, but in all honesty, I believe that we’ve got a bit of fortune on our side for the deal not going through.
Callum Wilson is having a good enough impact off the bench, meanwhile Pablo and Taty appear to have transformed our frontlines and therefore wouldn’t have been replaced. That’s not to say that Nketiah couldn’t have had any effect for West Ham, but it would’ve been yet another forward who suffers from injuries and to have that across a season is never good, but it’s especially not good when you’re fighting to stay in the league.
Not to mention, £27 million for Eddie Nketiah is quite a steep fee… whilst he’s only 26 years of age, it still would’ve been quite significant. It means Crystal Palace would’ve only lost £5 million from what they paid for him, and they certainly aren’t happy with how he’s turned out, claiming it’s just not worked out and it’s better for them to move him on.
A player of good quality but perhaps not what West Ham specifically needed. Besides, Taty and Pablo have been brilliant for us, so if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.