West Ham look to have pulled off one of the coups of the summer transfer window with the signing of Jean-Clair Todibo and a Wolves star played his part.
West Ham and Wolverhampton Wanderers have shared a fair few column inches this summer.
The Hammers appointed former Wolverhampton Wanderers boss Julen Lopetegui as their new head coach after a season out of the game.
One of the Spaniard’s first moves was to go knocking on Wolves’ old door for their captain Max Kilman.
After weeks of negotiations, West Ham finally struck an agreement with Wolves to sign Kilman for £40m.
The fee raised eyebrows across football.
Hammers fans were somewhat perturbed by the fact many Wolverhampton Wanderers fans celebrated the sale on social media.
But Wolves sporting director Matt Hobbs said a minority of ungrateful Wolves supporters will realise how good Kilman truly is now he has joined West Ham.
Todibo the ideal partner for Kilman at West Ham
The big issue raised by Wolves fans about Kilman is the fact he needs a dominant centre half alongside him. It was said Kilman came into his own when – rather ironically – Wolves signed Craig Dawson from West Ham.
Hammers technical director Tim Steidten and Lopetegui have been focused on signing that dominant partner for Kilman ever since.
On Saturday they finally got their man in the shape of Jean-Clair Todibo from Nice.
But West Ham had to fight off competition from the likes of Juventus and Aston Villa – with Man United having been blocked from signing Todibo by UEFA.
Now it has emerged the Irons had a little help from Wolves.
Todibo says Wolves star told him to join West Ham
Because new signing Todibo says a Wolves star told him to join West Ham.
“West Ham is the best choice for me for my progression, for everything,” Todibo said in an interview with the club’s website.
“I am growing up as a guy and as a player I talked a lot with Tim and the coach and they had the good words (to say)!
“I’m really happy to be here and I hope we’re going to do a big season this year. I think Lopetrgui is a really good coach and a really good person, also. He gave me confidence with his words.
“I’ve watched a lot of the coach and his teams. At Sevilla we were in the same league (when Todibo was at Barcelona) – I watch a lot of football so I watched him.
“Mario Lemina is one of my friends and he was with him (Lopetegui) at Wolverhampton.
“I spoke with some other players a little bit and they told me to come to the Premier League because the league is incredible. I think they are not wrong!”
Lemina helps Tim and co seal coup of the summer
When West Ham play Wolves perhaps Dawson won’t be the only player on the opposition to get a round of applause.
Lemina deserves a generous hand too for the part he played in getting Todibo to West Ham.
Steidten was key to the deal, flying out to Nice to convince him to forget about Juventus – who had previously been his preference.
Although the true surprise hero behind West Ham sealing the Todibo deal has been named and it’s not Steidten.
West Ham had the last laugh over Juve in all respects in the end.
That’s after the Hammers responded to a cheeky Juve jibe about Todibo in style.
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