OPINION
West Ham failed to sign Leander Dendoncker on deadline day despite submitting an offer for the midfielder, and their inability to sign him will cost them their Premier League status.
Kristof Terreur, a London-based reporter for Belgian newspaper HLN, tweeted on Wednesday that the Hammers had submitted a bid for Dendoncker only for it to be rejected.
Anderlecht want to keep Dendoncker until the end of the season, unless someone is willing to pay around £20m.
— Kristof Terreur (@kristofterreur) January 31, 2018
Terreur believed that a club would be able to sign the midfielder from Anderlecht in January if they were willing to pay £20million, with The Sun previously reporting that £22million would seal a deal.
West Ham really should have found a way to spend that money on Dendoncker as without him they face the real possibility of relegation.
David Moyes’ side currently sit only four points clear of the relegation zone, and have a massive problem which is causing them to look likely to drop into the bottom three.
The problem they have is that the Hammers are desperately short of midfielders and have no holding midfielder capable of dominating the midfield battle for them.
Lacking a player of this nature makes their relegation fight impossible to win, as teams will simply pass through their midfield on their way to putting several goals past Adrian.
Dendocker would have plugged this gap, the 22-year-old defensive midfielder’s toughness in the tackle with his ability to hold on the ball would have eased all of West Ham’s problems that would have cause them to experience relegation.
The Belgian international has showcased what he is capable of at Anderlecht this season in the 30 appearance he has made.
While Moyes would have still been short of midfielders, Dendocker’s arrival would have seen that be a problem the Hammers could have waited until the summer to fix.
Therefore the Hammers really shouldn’t have hesitated to give the Belgium side £22million for Dendocker, as relegation will cost them much more.
A ESPN report from March 2017 try to work out how much relegation from the Premier League costs a club, and it’s findings prove that the Hammers were better off paying £22million to save themselves.
The report shares that Aston Villa were left with a loss of £81million at the end of the financial year which saw them relegated from the Premier League.
The Villans’ drop into the Championship was seen as the reason for the massive deficient, as the side went from earning £65million from TV revenue to earning just £6million from it.
West Ham’s loss would be potential greater than that, as the Telegraph reports that with Amazon entering the race for the UK rights to air the Premier League, top-flight clubs are set to see a significant increase from TV revenue in the near future.
The Hammers would be missing out on some serious money if they were in the Championship.
Therefore, West Ham’s failure to sign the £22million-rated Dendoncker will end up costing them not just Premier League survival, but a fee significantly higher than what Anderlecht were demanding.