One of the most amusing stories concerning West Ham over the last few days involved a swap deal which must have appealed to nobody.
While swapping footballers between clubs seems to be the order of the day, as detailed in my earlier blog, it’s surely prudent to at least make the offer enticing.
Therefore, when news was revealed yesterday that West Ham United attempted to offer Wolverhampton Wanderers Danny Ings, I had to laugh. ExWHUEmployee had stated that Ings and Maxwel Cornet were the mystery players who had been offered in part-ex too Julen Lopetegui’s former club.
There’s nothing wrong with Danny Ings, of course; he’s a fine player who has enjoyed an excellent albeit injury-ravaged career. However, he’s possibly not the top striker Wolves are looking for. Surely the idea of a trade is to sweeten the deal in some way, and in this instance, I can’t believe the offer of Ings helped in the slightest.
In many respects, I’m surprised the Midlands club took as long as they did to reject the offer. After all, they value their captain at a whopping 45 million pounds, so the inclusion of Danny Ings was never likely to carry much counterbalance.
If West Ham are really serious about luring away a rival club’s most prized defender, then perhaps we could start by offering them something alluring in exchange.