Daniel Kretinsky looks to have made his full West Ham takeover stance clear with January transfer window actions after new claim

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Daniel Kretinsky looks to have made his full West Ham takeover stance clear with his January transfer window actions after a new claim.

Over the weekend Football Insider claimed Kretinsky has made no formal approach to increase his West Ham stake.

Czech billionaire Kretinsky became West Ham’s second biggest stakeholder behind David Sullivan when he purchased 27 per cent of the club in November 2021.

Kretinsky has repeatedly been linked with an eventual full takeover of West Ham (The Evening Standard). And there has been speculation for years that Sullivan and the Gold family would sell their stakes in the Hammers in 2023.

Any sale by Sullivan and Gold before March 2023 would incur a cost as part of the embarrassment clause in the club’s anchor tenancy deal with the LLDC.

It was agreed that if Sullivan and the Gold family sold West Ham for more than £300million before that date, 20 per cent of any profit would go to the ground’s landlord, the London Legacy Development Corporation.

Football Insider claims Kretinsky has showed no formal interest in a full Hammers takeover just two months out from the expiration of the embarrassment clause.

But the truth is, it’s becoming plainly obvious that he has no intention of doing that.

Because Kretinsky looks to have made his full West Ham takeover stance clear with his January transfer window actions after the new claim.

Or should that be January window inaction.

If Kretinsky had designs on a full takeover would he really be sitting back and watching West Ham’s relegation rivals go out and make some impressive signings in a bid to stay up while the Hammers do next to nothing?

Some supporters have suggested it would be in Kretinsky’s interests for the Hammers to be relegated as it would halve the club’s value overnight.

But as stated by Football Insider, the option for a full takeover that Kretinsky has with Sullivan and the Gold family is what is known as a ‘put and call’ option and its price does not vary in events such as relegation.

So make no mistake it is very much in Kretinsky’s interests for West Ham to stay up if he does intend on a full takeover.

If that was his plan then he would surely be making money available to Moyes to sign the players West Ham so blatantly need to have a chance of survival.

Yes the club signed Danny Ings but another forward, a centre-back and a right-back were needed as a bare minimum this month.

With little less than just over 36 hours to go until the window closes, Ings looks like being the club’s only first team signing this month.

That is not the actions of an ambitious co-owner desperate to protect his asset ahead of a full takeover.

Perhaps behind the scenes Kretinsky is making funds available but Moyes is refusing to spend?

Whatever the truth, the club is running a massive risk of dropping into the Championship.

Surely nobody has been deluded into a false sense of security by a win over the worst team in the league?

The actions or inaction of West Ham in the next 36 hours will go a long way to telling us everything we need to know about Kretinsky’s West Ham takeover intentions.

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