Despite frustration among fans before transfer deadline day, West Ham United have fared well in the league so far. The Hammers picked up draws against Manchester City and Tottenham, and came very close to getting something out of the game against Arsenal and Liverpool.
The Irons smashed four and three past Wolves and Leicester City respectively while keeping a clean sheet in both games. David Moyes deserves lots of credit for how well he has transformed West Ham. But, if things had gone their way in the transfer window, they could well have been in a better position.
The Hammers tried hard to sign James Tarkowski from Burnley this summer. West Ham had three bids rejected by the Clarets for the Englishmen and Moyes was forced to look elsewhere (Sky Sports).
The Irons tried to sign Saint Etienne’s Wesley Fofana after they missed out on Tarkowski. Sky Sports revealed that West Ham’s £33 million bid for the young French defender was rejected by the Ligue 1 side, who later accepted a £36.5 million offer from Leicester City (Guardian).
Fofana has been brilliant for Leicester so far
Fofana, still a teenager, has had a tremendous start to life in the Premier League. The Frenchman has started three times in the league for the Foxes and he hasn’t put a foot wrong.
The 19-year-old averages 3.3 interceptions, 1.7 tackles and five clearances per game. He wins 3.3 ground duels and three aerial duels per game and averages just 0.3 fouls every 90 minutes (SofaScore).
That is an outstanding return for a teenager who is playing in the Premier League for the first time in his career. Fofana hasn’t been fazed by the prospect of facing the best players in the world, and dealt with former Golden Boot winner Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang comfortably.
He has all the qualities to to become a world-class defender in the coming years and, if he can continue progressing as well as he has been so far this term, the £36.5 million fee Leicester paid for him will not look expensive at all.
It looks like West Ham missed out on a real gem in Fofana. The youngster would have been a fantastic addition to the Irons’ squad, but it wasn’t meant to be, and Moyes had to settle with the loan signing of Craig Dawson from Watford instead.
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