West Ham United may have to get used to rejections next month, with a number of their potential Niclas Fullkrug replacements seemingly expressing reservations about a move to the Premier League strugglers.
Joshua Zirkzee seems keen to stay at Manchester United, having ended his year-long top-flight goal drought in a recent 2-1 win at Crystal Palace.
Hammers News have been informed that Al-Hilal rejected a bid for Marcos Leonardo from West Ham United.
Promise ‘Baby Lukaku’ David is reportedly in no rush to leave Union Saint-Gilloise, and the same can be said of one of the hottest prospects in South America too. Cruzeiro’s Kaio Jorge has doubts about returning to Europe having found himself on the outside looking in as a young man at Juventus.
West Ham’s record when it comes to BIG MONEY signings isn’t great 💸
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So although West Ham expect a resolution in the Niclas Fullkrug saga in the relatively near future – AC Milan have emerged as the most likely destination having agreed terms with the Germany international – finding someone to take his place is proving far easier said than done.
Scott McDonald, though, knows how it feels to be on the other side of a rejection.
All those years ago, when a fresh-faced McDonald was looking to make the move from Australia to England though, it was the Hammers who did the rebuffing.
Scott McDonald had trials at West Ham United and Arsenal
Speaking on The Warm Up podcast, McDonald reflects on a time when numerous Aussie talents made the trip from deepest Down Under to the opposite hemisphere.
In the mid-to-late 1990s, Leeds signed Harry Kewell, Crystal Palace signed Kevin Muscat and West Ham themselves plucked Stan Lazaridis from West Adelaide.
McDonald, though, was denied the chance to follow in Lazaridis’ footsteps. Something he puts down to the fact that West Ham and Arsenal, who also expressed an interest around the turn of the Century, would have had to tie him down to a professional deal rather than a youth scholarship.
“I had an opportunity to go to Bayer Leverkusen. A few of the [Australian] lads went to Germany,” McDonald says. “But the language barrier was an issue and a few of them were coming home, so I didn’t really want to take that pathway.
“I had trials at West Ham and Arsenal before I ended up signing at Southampton [as a trainee in 2001].
“Liam Brady was head of youth at Arsenal. [He said], ‘you are as good as what we’ve got’. To sign, you had to sign pro-terms. [Neither Arsenal nor West Ham] were not going to sign you on a ‘YT’.
“So, you had to be better than what was there. Thankfully, Southampton thought that [I was].
“Harry Kewell was the best example. Harry left really, really early and came through at Leeds. He was kind of one I looked at and aspired to, to get over early. There wasn’t really a full-time professional league in Australia at the time.
“So, we had to go [abroad].”
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West Ham have had eight Australian footballers in the Premier League
McDonald made only two Premier League appearances for the Saints before an equally forgettable stint with Wimbledon. It was north of the border at Celtic, though, where the 2008 Scottish Premiership champion really left his mark.
McDonald scored 64 goals in 128 Celtic appearances, going on to spend the rest of his time on UK soil with Middlesbrough, Millwall and Motherwell.
Now 42, he is back home in Australia working as the manager of Gold Coast Knights.
In addition to the aforementioned Lazaridis, eight Australian players have represented West Ham United in the Premier League. Chris Coyne, Hayden Foxe, Steve Mautone, Robbie Slater, Lucas Neill and Richard Garcia.
Garcia played alongside Michael Carrick and Joe Cole when West Ham won the FA Youth Cup in 1999.
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