Bargain signings and West Ham United do not always go hand-in-hand, the Premier League strugglers spending millions upon millions while receiving little return for their investments.
On the opening weekend, after they suffered a 3-0 drubbing by newly-promoted Sunderland, Graham Potter pinned the blame on a £106 million defensive trio of Max Kilman, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Jean-Clair Todibo.
Mads Hermansen didn’t cover himself in glory either, particularly for Sunderland’s third goal. After conceding 11 goals in his first three Premier League matches, meanwhile, the £18 million Hermansen was dropped by Potter against Crystal Palace last time out.
Combine the respective transfer fees of Niclas Fullkrug, James Ward-Prowse, Luis Guilherme, Gianluca Scamacca, Nayef Aguerd, Maxwel Cornet, Flynn Downes and Danny Ings, and West Ham United have spent a further £180 million since the summer of 2022, only to find themselves slipping further and further down the table.
Yet, the £19 million fee they stumped up for El Hadji Malick Diouf does feel like a relatively seldom-seen bargain.
Though not everyone agrees that the windfall Slavia Prague banked in July was reflective of good value. Michal Cierny, who works for the Slovakia-based Atlas Sports agency, cannot understand why players from the Czech league go for such high fees while those in his homeland do not.
Michal Cierny hits out at West Ham United’s Malick Diouf fee after David Strelec joined Middlesbrough
Cierny highlights the deal which took David Strelec from Slovan Bratislava to Championship outfit Middlesbrough for £6.5 million last month.
Strelec has scored 35 goals for club and country since the start of last season. He even netted a stunning solo effort against Julian Nagelsmann’s Germany a few weeks ago, with Cierny insisting that a player of his returns deserves to be viewed alongside Europe’s finest finishers.
Stanislav Lobotka, Milan Skriniar and David Hancko – who would go on to shine for Napoli, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid, among others – also departed their native Slovakia for a combined fee in the region of £8 million.
And with Slavia Prague bringing in three times as much for a 20-year-old left-back as Slovan Bratislava secured for the prolific Strelec, Cierny is left feeling that clubs in the Nike Liga are being taken advantage of in comparison.
“What’s the problem? Why don’t we see [Strelec] running in the famous Ajax jersey? Simply because he’s from Slovakia,” Cierny argues, via Sport 24. “Scouts simply don’t trust the Slovak league. They don’t have the courage or quality for real scouting.
“If he played for Sparta Prague – who sold an average centre-back Martin Vitik to Bologna for around 12 million euros – or for Slavia Prague – who sent left-back Diouf to West Ham for 22 million euros – [Strelec] would have cost 20 million euros.
“But he’s Slovak, so he cost seven million euros. Are you kidding me?”
Diouf has the most assists of any full-back in Europe’s major leagues
Now, ‘are you kidding me’ might have been the thought running through the minds of West Ham fans when it became apparent just what good value Malick Diouf would come to represent in claret and blue.
Arguably their most consistent performer during an admittedly dreadful start to the season, captain Jarrod Bowen has already hailed Diouf as ‘one of the best’ crossers of a ball he has ever come across. And that was before the Senegal star assisted his equaliser against Crystal Palace last weekend.
What’s more, he has the most assists of any full-back in Europe’s top-five leagues at present, with three in his first five Premier League outings.
Diouf could emulate Paolo di Canio and Bowen by becoming only the third West Ham player to reach double-figures for assists in a top-flight campaign this century.
Receive a digest of our best West Ham content each week direct to your mailbox
