ExWHUemployee has given his thoughts on Duvan Zapata and a potential move to West Ham United during the January transfer window.
West Ham ended the transfer window the same way they started it, with no senior players moving in or out of the squad.
There were some suggestions that this wasn’t their intention, with reports claiming that they were trying to sign Benfica forward Darwin Nunez, only for that deal to collapse in the closing stages of the window.
Speaking on the morning after the deadline passed during the latest edition of The West Ham Way podcast, ExWHUemployee claimed that once that deal was over, the Hammers made a bid for Colombian forward Zapata at Atalanta, but that it came incredibly late in the window.
Having previously revealed an approach for Zapata on Deadline Day, Ex went into more detail on the negotiations, suggesting the Hammers were willing to take things past the 11pm cut-off.
Ex said: “West Ham submitted an offer, started talking to a player last night – a forward, Duvan Zapata of Atalanta, a Colombian international. They started talking to him at 8pm yesterday. 8pm – three hours left of the window.
“Yes, that was probably triggered because the Nunez deal didn’t work. But again, you can prepare for this. You can say ‘right, we’re going to bid for Nunez in the first week. If that doesn’t work, then we might look at this guy, we might look at this guy, then we’ll look at Zapata’. But you can do it with enough notice to get it over the line. As it turns out, Atalanta didn’t reply to us and the deal didn’t happen.
“I got a tip-off from someone that we might have submitted a late deal application, which you can do on Deadline Day. If you can prove that the deal is all basically done and dusted, you just need to do a medical and stuff, you can get an extension. So I got the heads-up that a deal [application] had been submitted.”
TIF Thoughts on ExWHUemployee and his comments on Duvan Zapata and West Ham United…
Will West Ham's lack of transfers cost them top six?
Yes
No
This just comes across as bad organisation on West Ham United’s part if what ExWHUemployee is saying is true.
Because whilst he is right that it may have been triggered by the situation surrounding Nunez, they should have had a backup option lined up well before they decided to go all-in on someone like the Benfica man, because as it turned out, they then didn’t have the time to find another suitable option.
It’s bad enough doing that in a normal window, but given how long West Ham have been crying out for another forward, it just makes the whole situation a little bit embarrassing that they couldn’t get something organised until it was far too late.
In other news: ‘They were showboating’ – TalkSport pundit blasts West Ham after attempted ‘transaction’