West Ham have made some woeful transfer decisions in recent years but it seems they may well have avoided their worst yet by snubbing a £50m Tim Steidten-led move for Victor Boniface.
Two years ago a top journalist revealed West Ham were getting ready to back technical director Tim Steidten by funding a club record transfer for Nigerian striker Victor Boniface.
West Ham had started yet another search for a striker and Boniface was top of Steidten’s list.
It was claimed West Ham were willing to back Steidten’s judgement with a £50m bid for Boniface they were confident would tempt Bayer Leverkusen into selling.
Photos emerge showing Boniface carrying ‘excess weight’
The powerful, pacy forward seemed to have all the ingredients needed to be a Premier League hit – especially when he impressed in Leverkusen’s pre-season and Europa League quarter-final victories over the Hammers.
But it seems West Ham dodged that £50m Steidten deal bullet as ‘disturbing’ Boniface concerns emerge.
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In the end Steidten elected not to spend his striker budget on one signing for his first summer in full charge of West Ham’s recruitment.
Jhon Duran was targeted too but Steidten then opted to spread his budget on signing flop duo Niclas Fullkrug and Luis Guilherme instead.
While those signings have proved disastrous, signing Boniface may have proved even worse.
That’s after photos described as ‘disturbing’ by German publication Bild emerged showing Boniface ‘carrying excess weight’ in training after returning from a long-term injury while on loan at Werder Bremen.
Club chiefs have also spoken out calling on the former Hammers target Boniface to improve his physical condition.
Boniface is yet to score for Bremen since leaving Leverkusen on a season-long loan deal and has only made 11 appearances due to a knee injury.
West Ham dodged £50m bullet as Boniface told to improve physical condition
While Boniface’s knee was the problem in the first half of the season, Bild says now his stomach is the issue.
Werder Bremen’s head of professional football, Peter Niemeyer, suggested to BILD Boniface needs to sort out his fitness and conditioning.
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“We knew what kind of shape he was in,” Niemeyer said.
“He now needs to work on his fitness and we’re helping him with that. But Victor is primarily responsible for that…
“Of course, he’s not yet physically fit and unable to play in the Bundesliga. But he wants to help the team again. We’re now working intensively with him to achieve that goal.”
Bild states that Boniface’s ‘excess weight’ was a problem at the start of his loan spell but has now become ‘even more pronounced’.
West Ham dodged the Boniface bullet not once, but twice.
The Hammers reportedly made an enquiry for the 25-year-old last summer but he ended up joining Bremen instead on deadline day.
Ironically the man West Ham signed instead for half the price, Fullkrug, quickly found out he had to shed weight to try and cope with the physicality and athleticism of the English game.
Fullkrug admitted he lost five kilos after his disastrous debut campaign.
But it did little to help the German and he was loaned out to AC Milan, who have reportedly already decided they don’t want to take up the paltry £5m option to make the move permanent.
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