While West Ham United’s squad is belatedly taking shape with the late arrivals of Mateus Fernandes, Soungoutou Magassa and Igor Julio, Graham Potter’s roster could have looked a whole lot different on September 2nd.
Before meeting Southampton’s £40 million asking price for Mateus Fernandes, West Ham held talks with Aston Villa regarding Jacob Ramsey.
The impressive but injury-prone young midfielder who eventually secured a big-money move to Newcastle United instead.
Ardon Jashari turned down the Hammers in favour of AC Milan. Douglas Luiz’s wages were seemingly too expensive, meanwhile; the Brazil international joined Nottingham Forest instead alongside other West Ham United-linked talents James McAtee and Omari Hutchinson.
Liverpool youngsters Tyler Morton and Ben Gannon-Doak were mentioned too, before putting pen to paper with Lyon and Bournemouth respectively.
As for Harvey Elliott, while speculation earlier in the window suggested that the 2024/25 Premier League champion was an option to replace Lucas Paqueta at the London Stadium, he instead stepped into the Brazilian’s shoes at Villa Park, in a sense.
West Ham United were ‘reluctant’ to sign Harvey Elliott before Aston Villa transfer
After Lucas Paqueta committed his future to West Ham in the most emphatic fashion, Aston Villa turned to Harvey Elliott on the final day of the transfer window.
Villa had initially hoped to land Paqueta for a fee just shy of £50 million.
Instead, Unai Emery’s slow-starters secured Elliott on an initial loan deal, albeit with a £35 million obligation-to-buy clause included.
The Athletic, in a deep dive into West Ham’s comings and goings, now explain that there was a very good reason why West Ham’s interest in Elliott appeared to wane as July turned into August.
They say that the Hammers were simply ‘reluctant to meet Liverpool’s valuation’.
Now, the cynics will point out that Elliott – a Premier League winner with nearly 100 top-flight appearances under his belt – ended up costing Aston Villa £5 million or so less than West Ham paid for Mateus Fernandes.
But with Paqueta rejecting Villa’s advances, Graham Potter seemingly needed an athletic, dynamic number eight a lot more than he needed another silky number ten. Especially with James Ward-Prowse and Tomas Soucek into their 30s.
West Ham failed to move Guido Rodriguez out to Real Betis, meanwhile.
Graham Potter thinks Mateus Fernandes can help transform West Ham
Mateus Fernandes demonstrated the ‘different dimension’ Potter felt he would bring during Sunday’s 3-0 win at Nottingham Forest.
In a typically all-action display – Fernandes is a West Ham fan favourite already, it would seem – he contributed effectively both in and out of possession while striking up an immediate understanding with Paqueta in the final third.
“It was a perfect debut for me,” the Algarve-born 21-year-old told the official Hammers website. “I gave everything out there, and I think as a team we did very well.
“I think we deserved it. Over the last couple of days, training has been good, and though we knew they were a good team, we fully believed we could come here and win. We have world-class players with many qualities, and we showed that out there.
“They’re a very physical team, but we matched them, and we set the foundations in the first half. We tried to be intense and win every duel, and we’re really happy to come out of it with the points.
“Now, we just need to be more consistent going forward. There are still things we know we can improve, but we are confident we can keep winning games and achieve our goals.”
