West Ham’s summer rebuild has got underway pretty rapidly after the opening of the transfer window. Although it seems like forever, the window officially opened 8 days ago and three new signings have arrived at London Stadium to date.
We know there is much to do and the Management duo of Steiden and Lopetegui are working hard (from all the transfer rumours abounding) to add depth in most areas, as well as adding youth to what was one of the oldest Premier League squads last year.
This weekend came, initially, encouraging news regarding one of our apparent targets, 24 year-old Nice defender Jean-Clair Todibo: Carlos Garcia in todofichajes.com even suggested that we had included both our defensive duo of Zouma and Aguerd as part of a further bid. We’d already tried a bid of 35 million euros which had been rejected.
Incidentally, Barcelona are monitoring closely as they have a quarter share of any future sell on value. However football-italia reported yesterday afternoon that Todibo had put his talks with the Hammers on hold as Juventus joined the quest for this player and opened talks for his signature.
Juventus already have a working relationship with Nice following the successful agreement for the transfer of Khephren Thuram. It will be a tough sell for Tim Steiden to convince both the player and his club to consider a move to London Stadium, particularly if our bid is complicated further by other player part-exchanges making up some of the deal. However, Premier League salaries can often be higher than those in Italy so I don’t see this as being over just yet.
The 1.90m French international centre-back would be a huge upgrade on last seasons’ often immobile defence when partnered with Max Kilman: It maybe wishful thinking on my part but as a right-footed centre back he’d slot straight in.