A rejuvenated Everton submitted a bid for Soucek<\/a> in late-August. <\/p>\n One that, as Tomas Soucek<\/a> now explains, was rejected by not only West Ham United<\/a> but also by himself.<\/p>\n While reports back in the spring suggested that Graham Potter was ready to move Soucek on<\/a> after half-a-decade in East London, the Hammers boss certainly did not sound like a man happy to cash in once Everton put forward a \u00a317 million package.<\/p>\n Potter spoke glowingly about Soucek\u2019s character<\/a>. And, just days after he powered home a trademark header against Wolves in the Carabao Cup, the under-pressure head coach was also keen to highlight a goalscoring record few midfielders in the Premier League can match, let alone at the London Stadium.<\/p>\n Now, with a summer of speculation behind him, Soucek opened up on a joint-decision to extend his five-year stay in the capital.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was interest. It was [reported] in the media, it was also felt at the club, But West Ham and I said no, because I feel the strength of West Ham,\u201d Soucek tells Ceske Noviny<\/a>. \u201cI feel [I am in] a stable position there that is recognised. <\/p>\n \u201cSo, I look forward to further cooperation at West Ham.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Czech publication\u00a0InFotbal,<\/a>\u00a0Everton offered an initial \u00a315 million, plus \u00a32 million in add-ons, for West Ham\u2019s number 28. After Leeds turned their attention to Anton Stach much earlier in the window, Everton shifted their focus towards the Bundesliga<\/a> too.<\/p>\n Merlin Rohl, another six-foot-plus giant of a midfielder, joined from Freiburg for the same fee Everton were prepared to pay West Ham for Soucek.<\/p>\n Soucek prepares for World Cup qualifiers after winning over Graham Potter<\/p>\n The four-time Czech footballer of the year was speaking ahead of Friday\u2019s World Cup qualifier against Montenegro and the follow-up friendly clash with Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n Soucek saw the likes of Vaclav Cerny [Besiktas], Matej Kovar [PSV Eindhoven] and Pavel Sulc [Lyon] seal summer moves, while centre-back Ladislav Krejci joined Wolves on loan from Girona in a deal which could reach \u00a326 million.<\/p>\n \u201cTransfers are part of football,\u201d adds Soucek, the captain of his national team looking to add to a tally of 81 caps and 15 goals. <\/p>\n \u201cWhoever transferred, I already congratulated him in the locker room and now I congratulate him publicly. It\u2019s just a plus for the player, a great motivation that there is interest in him.\u201d<\/p>\n While highlighting his presence inside the opposition penalty area, meanwhile, Graham Potter also paid tribute to Soucek\u2019s adaptability and his willingness to do the dirty work in less glamorous roles.<\/p>\n Only Mateus Fernandes and Kyle Walker-Peters made more tackles than him during Sunday\u2019s shock 3-0 away win at Nottingham Forest.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at his goals record when he\u2019s on the pitch, as a starter\u2026,\u201d Potter said before that City Ground trip. \u201cAnd then as a person, once you work with Tomas [you discover] he is a fantastic individual.<\/p>\n \u201cHe sacrifices himself for the team, plays in loads of different roles. He\u2019s contributed a lot to the success West Ham have had over the years. Great person. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s got the ability to defend and attack both boxes and to score, obviously [that] is an important part of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tomas Soucek made no attempt to hide the fact that the option of leaving West Ham United presented…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,9330,44357,574,561,82,66915],"class_list":{"0":"post-120226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-david-moyes","11":"tag-everton","12":"tag-premier-league","13":"tag-soccer","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tomas-soucek"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Tomas](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2232250366-1024x683.jpg\")
Photo by James Gill \u2013 Danehouse\/Getty ImagesWest Ham United ace Tomas Soucek explains why Everton transfer didn\u2019t happen<\/p>\n