Just what were West Ham thinking as a shocking revelation emerges about Thilo Kehrer after he was sold for peanuts.
When it comes to being savvy in the transfer market it goes both ways.
West Ham have improved their recruitment drastically since the arrival of technical director Tim Steidten.
Signings such as Mohammed Kudus, Edson Alvarez, Crysencio Summerville, Jean-Clair Todibo, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Max Kilman are some examples of that.
It seems the Hammers still have some way to go when it comes to selling, though.
West Ham got £105m for Declan Rice – a record at the time.
But that was a one-off.
While other clubs seem to bring in top money for even the most distinctly average players, West Ham struggle to command decent fees, or even agree sales at all.
Large amount of money have been written off when selling on players after short spells in east London.
In the summer West Ham failed to drum up any interest in permanent moves for the likes of Nayef Aguerd, James Ward-Prowse, Danny Ings and Maxwel Cornet.
The Hammers should have been able to raise at least £40m from those players as a bare minimum.
Given sales are now crucial to allowing the club to spend, being top sellers is just as important as top buyers.
So it must be asked what West Ham were thinking as a shocking revelation emerges about Thilo Kehrer.
Shocking revelation emerges about Thilo Kehrer
Hindsight is of course a wonderful thing but West Ham look to have dropped a real clanger giving up on the versatile German defender way too soon.
Much has been made of West Ham’s centre-back since their summer overhaul.
Julen Lopetegui made it clear he wants to operate with two senior players for every position.
However, in central defence the Spaniard has only three options – Kilman, Todobo and Konstantinos Mavropanos.
Lopetegui made it clear he wanted a fourth centre-back and the club even considered signing an injury-prone veteran on a free transfer after the window closed.
It comes after Angelo Ogbonna, Aguerd, Kurt Zouma and – in an official capacity – Kehrer all left in the summer.
When West Ham were looking to move fringe players on in January, Kehrer left on loan for Monaco.
At the time it was no great surprise given he had become fourth-choice centre-back under Moyes.
Kehrer had established himself as an important utility player for West Ham on their way to Europa Conference League glory last year.
But Kehrer played just 19 minutes of Premier League football for West Ham last season before leaving for France.
In fact he was completely marginalised by Moyes, making just four starts in all competitions.
His loan to Monaco essentially had an obligation to buy clause as it contained easily achievable triggers.
The defender’s move to Monaco was made permanent on July 1st.
With the benefit of hindsight, though, the £10.5m deal now looks a mistake.
West Ham find themselves scratching around for a centre-back from the free agents reject pile.
Everytime the Hammers have signed a player this summer, Steidten has made a point of highlighting the fact he wants to bring versatile players to the club, saying ‘it is important in modern football’.
What were West Ham thinking selling Kehrer for peanuts?
Kehrer could even do a job as a defensive midfielder too.
There’s no doubt Kehrer struggled to establish himself and made some poor mistakes in certain games.
But he’s still only 27 and it feels like the Hammers should have held fire on any decision over a permanent departure until a new manager came in.
Especially as the man in charge of West Ham’s comings and goings is his compatriot Steidten.
Well Steidten and West Ham fans may want to look away now.
Because the world’s leading football data experts WhoScored have just made a revelation about Kehrer that will leave the Hammers feeling deep regret.
Not necessarily just for selling Kehrer but for failing to get more than a paltry £10.5m for the defender.
WhoScored has revealed Kehrer is officially THE best centre-back in all of Europe this season. Bar none.
Kehrer, naively shipped off for peanuts by West Ham at just £10.5m, has recorded an average match rating of 7.64/10 this season.
That’s the best of any centre-back in any team across Europe’s top five leagues.
Better than West Ham’s current crop, better than the stars at Man City and Arsenal.
Better than players at Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG. You name it, Kehrer has officially been better than all of them.
This is particularly galling coming on the day West Ham exclusively revealed to Hammers News that money will need to be raised through one or two sales before any more signings can be made in the coming windows.
The Hammers are at their limit in terms of PSR.
Yet they’ve let Kehrer go for what looks to have been £15-20m too cheap at least.
Worse still Kehrer was a great professional, character and leader by all accounts. He was also well liked by teammates and fans.
What were West Ham thinking?
