West Ham let 'real coup' Borges transfer slip amid wages issue
West Ham were “put off” by Carlos Borge’s wage demands and allowed Ajax to hijack their deal for the Manchester City youngster, according to the Evening Standard.
The newspaper reported on its website late on Tuesday night (1 August) that the Hammers “will not” be signing the 19-year-old after the Eredivisie giants “swooped” to steal the £17m deal, just when it appeared David Moyes was set for a “real coup” by signing the youngster ahead of Brighton and Borussia Dortmund.
The winger is “regarded as one of the most talented players in the English youth academy system” but West Ham apparently hesitated over the wages he wanted and Ajax have taken full advantage.
Fabrizio Romano reported Wednesday morning (2 August) that an announcement is set to follow at the Amsterdam Arena the same day after Borge’s completed his Ajax medical.
Unbelievable
The young Portuguese had been set to become David Moyes’ first signing of the summer but the failure to close the deal has only added to a miserable transfer window so far.
Declan Rice’s £105m exit was made official over a fortnight ago (15 July) and still none of the numerous replacement targets have been wrapped up.
Gianluca Scamacca is also now heading for a permanent exit to Inter after weeks of Roma being rebuffed with loan interest, and Aaron Cresswell is apparently begging to be allowed to go to Wolves.
But West Ham have been making offers and approaches left, right and centre for midfielders, left-backs and centre-backs without success, and the one deal that they appeared to have wrapped up has now fallen through as well.
Fans will be starting to despair at the log-jam that has developed that the London Stadium thanks to the weird decision to stick with Moyes as manager and then appoint Tim Steidten, who has completely different ideas, as technical director.
If Borges is that highly rated then it is likely the kind of deal where it will take a big contract to land him, so if wages were at the crux of the issue it is frustrating.
No club should be blindly spending over the odds just for the sake of getting deals done, but it makes little sense to waste time getting so far down the road with a deal only to then decide you aren’t willing to seal it with the player.
A similar situation occurred a year ago when Amadou Onana looked to be on the way in, before West Ham fumbled the Belgian to cash-strapped Everton, with that failure looking all the more glaring now that a player of his stature is exactly what they need.
