West Ham United insider @ExWHUemployee has recently made a claim about the club’s previous interest in signing Czech Republic defender Michal Frydrych.
During the recent transfer window, the Hammers sealed the arrival of four players, two of which were on a permanent basis and two on loan (per Transfermarkt).
On loan, the Hammers signed Said Benrahma from Brentford and Craig Dawson from Watford, although both have options to make the loan a permanent switch.
The two players which arrived permanently were Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal, both of which were signed from Czech club Slavia Prague.
During the latest episode of The West Ham Way Podcast, @ExWHUemployee claimed that the Hammers were eyeing a swoop for a third player from the Prague club during the transfer window.
He said: “So, it was talked about on Claret and Hugh that we wanted to sign a Czech defender who we didn’t end up signing in the end.
“I did mention the fact that we wanted to sign a Czech defender previously. His name is Michal Frydrych and he ended up moving to Polish side Wisla Krakow for [€800,000].
“It was someone that we wanted to sign and we did put a late bid in for him towards the end of the window, but we were too late with that one.”
TIF Thoughts on what @ExWHUemployee had to say about Michal Frydrych…
As can be seen in what the in-the-know podcaster had to say, it seems that the Irons were keen on signing the Czech defender but made an offer for him too late.
In mid-September, the 30-year-old defender moved from Slavia Prague to Wisla Krakow for an €800,000 (£720,000) fee (per Transfermarkt).
Who would you rather West Ham had signed?
Frydrych
Dawson
With the Hammers having missed out on Frydrych in what was presumably the international transfer window, that is likely why they moved for Dawson in the domestic window.
So far this season, the Czech defender has made four league appearances for Wisla Krakow in which he has scored once and assisted once while Dawson is yet to feature for the Irons.