It is never usually a great sign when a club misses out on someone dubbed their top target – as West Ham United appeared to do when Dael Fry left Middlesbrough for Birmingham City on Friday.
The reaction from the Hammers camp to Fry’s St Andrews switch, though, should warm the cockles of those hoping for a big splash in the market.
Last month, West Ham United insider ExWhuEmployee said talks had taken place with Dael Fry. The 28-year-old defender was, at the time of the report three weeks ago, not only the ‘top target’ but also the most ‘realistic’ for a club that had just been relegated out of the Premier League amid massive concerns regarding their financial situation.
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Now, things have changed.
West Ham United no longer needed Birmingham City-bound Dael Fry
The Hammers haven’t exactly gone from paupers to princes but after Daniel Kretinsky injected £90 million into the coffers and after a further £85 million was made following the sale of Mateus Fernandes to Tottenham, there is no longer a need to scrimp, save, and focus solely on freebies and bargains.
As Ex writes in a new update; ‘The club will have money to work with now and have since upgraded their potential targets following the £85 million that we got for the transfer of Mateus Fernandes to Spurs’.
The source also claimed that, while Fry was viewed as a cheap option to improve the defensive options at Nuno Espirito Santo’s disposal, West Ham are no longer restricted to bargain buys.
Following the appointment of Nils Koppen – the former Rangers and PSV chief will arrive as the club’s head of technical recruitment in the coming days – you can expect to see more ambitious, potentially more expensive options present themselves.
Whether any of those prove to be as solid a signing as Dael Fry, though, remains to be seen.
Fry is a veteran of over 250 Championship games. He helped Middlesbrough reach the play-off final last season. Fry proved himself at the Riverside to be not only a colossal aerial presence, but also a fine passer of the ball. There is a reason why Michael Carrick, now the head coach at Manchester United, liked him so much.
Ambitious Birmingham City hope to insert themselves into the promotion battle next term, and signing Fry could be a very good start.
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Yet, as transfer targets go, Fry is not exactly the profile that comes to mind when you think of Nils Koppen.
Nils Koppen will look to bring younger options to West Ham
At Rangers, Koppen talked about the need to be ‘creative’ and ‘think outside the box’.
Look to lesser-utilised markets in pursuit of young, hungry talent who are only just getting started; see Jefte, a left-back signed from Brazil and sold on for a £3.5 million profit, and Hamza Igamane, a 16-goal striker brought in from Morocco for £1.7 million.
He was also responsible for building a PSV Eindhoven squad who have just won three successive Eredivisie titles. Bayern Munich snapped up Ismael Saibari for around £50 million following his World Cup exploits with Morocco, and he was someone brought into the Phillips Stadium by Koppen for just £200,000.
Fry was a typical transfer target for the old, David Sullivan-led West Ham. Experienced, presumably pretty solid, but with an obvious limit on his potential.
Under Koppen and Kretinsky, and with plenty of money in the bank, you can expect a more ‘risk and reward’ approach to recruitment.
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