{"id":307394,"date":"2025-12-09T18:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T18:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/307394\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T18:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T18:33:09","slug":"west-hams-best-piece-of-transfer-business-may-already-have-been-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/307394\/","title":{"rendered":"West Ham\u2019s Best Piece of Transfer Business May Already Have Been Done"},"content":{"rendered":"

There were three realistic candidates linked with the London Stadium<\/a> \u2014 all strongly pursued at various points.<\/p>\n

First came Harvey Elliott, the name on everyone\u2019s lips after starring in England\u2019s victorious U21 European Championship campaign. Liverpool were willing to let him go for somewhere between \u00a330\u2013\u00a345 million, and Aston Villa snapped him up when he became surplus to requirements at Anfield.<\/p>\n

Next was Jacob Ramsey, also moving on from Villa and \u2014 we were reliably told \u2014 Graham Potter\u2019s number one target. West Ham submitted a firm bid for the Will Salthouse client, but Ramsey chose Newcastle instead.<\/p>\n

Most Read on West Ham News<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ramsey was wanted by West Ham boss Potter<\/p>\n

The third option was Mateus Fernandes, who had just been relegated with Southampton but stood out in a struggling side. After missing out on Ramsey, Claret & Hugh<\/a> reported at the time that Fernandes had become Potter\u2019s priority\u2026 though history is now being conveniently rewritten.<\/p>\n

We now hear it was David Sullivan<\/a> and Max Hahn who pushed for Fernandes rather than Potter and Kyle Macaulay. Honestly? Who knows \u2014 and to some extent, who cares? These days it seems every good signing is retroactively credited to the owners\u2019 scouting, leaving Macaulay supposedly responsible for\u2026 well, nothing. Convenient indeed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Fernandes was the best player on the pitch against Brighton<\/p>\n

Whatever the Story, West Ham Made the Right Call<\/p>\n

Regardless of who deserves the credit, West Ham clearly landed the right man. Perhaps it was strong scouting, perhaps good fortune \u2014 because if Jacob Ramsey had agreed to join, and Salthouse was no doubt pushing it, Fernandes might never have been signed at all.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s now absolutely obvious is that West Ham have a top talent on their hands \u2014 one who will not be sticking around for long if the Hammers suffer the dreaded drop.<\/p>\n

And looking back at the trio of Elliott, Ramsey and Fernandes, it certainly feels like West Ham ended up with the best of the three.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There were three realistic candidates linked with the London Stadium \u2014 all strongly pursued at various points. First…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-307394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}