Filip Kostic has admitted that he always only wanted to move to Juventus, and that should be a big worry for the West Ham fans.
Hammers boss David Moyes chased the 29-year-old for weeks on end before he finally moved to Juventus in a £13.4 million deal (Goal).
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The Hammers ended up signing Maxwel Cornet instead. The Ivorian is more of an attack-minded player than Kostic though. So the need for Moyes to sign a top-class left wing-back is still just as urgent as it was before.
And that begs the question – why did the Scot spend so much time chasing Kostic when it was apparent that he didn’t want to move to the London Stadium?
Filip Kostic admission makes mockery of West Ham pursuit
The Serbia International undoubtedly would have been a terrific addition to Moyes’s squad this summer.
talkSPORT recently described Kostic as a ‘brilliant’ player, and they’re not wrong.
The Eintracht Frankfurt ace is an incredibly hard-working player and he would suit our system perfectly.
He is old fashioned in the sense that he’s left-footed and plays on the left! As a result, Kostic is much more of a provider than a goalscorer.
The 48-capped Serbia international bagged 15 assists and seven goals in 43 games for Eintracht Frankfurt last season (Transfermarkt). That’s a healthy return by anyone’s standards.
We would have loved to see Filip Kostic at West Ham.
It’s clear that we never had a chance of signing him though.
Kostic responded when asked by Sky Sports Italia about the interest from West Ham:
“I did not personally follow the negotiations. But I wanted to come to Juventus and I did everything to come here. (Serbia and now Juve team-mate) Dusan Vlahovic told me he would be happy to see me at Juve. He told me many wonderful things about the club. And when I arrived here, I had confirmation of everything. I have followed Juve since I was little, as well as all of Serie A. My job is to provide the best balls to the strikers. I am here to be at the disposal of the coach and the team.”
Why on earth did Moyes chase him for so long? Kostic would have made it clear that he wanted Juventus instead.
That’s a good few weeks that were wasted in the transfer market.
West Ham should have moved on from Kostic as soon as he didn’t make it clear that he wanted to join us. This failure to move on from players has cost us dearly in the transfer market over the past 12 months.
And it’s something that Moyes needs to learn from as a matter of urgency.
Read other West Ham news:
Report: Moyes now eyeing move to sign £95k-a-wk winger who ‘wants to join West Ham’
Report: West Ham now want to sign £15m 2019 Europa League winner from PL rivals