There is no lack of irony as Leeds United look set to sign a big West Ham target with the money from the Crysencio Summerville deal.
West Ham expressed their delight at signing flying Dutchman Crysencio Summerville from Leeds United at the weekend.
On the flip side, though, losing the 22-year-old wing wizard is a monumental blow for Leeds.
And it was made inevitable after their failure to win promotion back to the Premier League.
That will undoubtedly be made more difficult now Summerville has left Elland Road for the Hammers.
Leeds fans will demand that the money is reinvested in quality players to help get the club back where they feel they belong.
Leeds to turn the tables on Hammers?
It says a lot about the player West Ham are getting that Leeds boss Daniel Farke says Summerville is essentially irreplaceable.
West Ham had been linked with Summerville prior to the deal with Leeds suddenly ramping last week.
Signing the best player in the Championship looked like a pipedream for the Irons given Liverpool, Chelsea and mega rich Newcastle were also being linked.
Leeds made West Ham sign a non-disclosure agreement regarding the fee paid for Summerville.
That has sparked various theories as to why.
One being that Leeds want to hide the fact they did not get a good deal for their best player.
Another that Leeds don’t want other clubs to know how much money they have burning a hole in their pocket as they go in search of replacements.
Now there are several layers of irony after a very interesting development.
Because savvy Leeds are set to sign a big West Ham target with the Summerville money.
Savvy Leeds to sign big West Ham target with Summerville cash?
West Ham identified Norwich’s Jonathan Rowe as a top target ahead of the summer window.
Rowe was named Norwich’s young player of the year after scoring 13 goals and laying on three assists in 28 starts last season.
That’s despite missing a large portion of Norwich games due to injury but returned for the big play-off semi-final with Leeds.
It was a crushing Leeds victory in that semi-final that boosted West Ham’s hopes of singing exciting 21-year-old England youth international Rowe.
The Evening Standard claimed West Ham were monitoring Rowe and even wanted him in January after selling Pablo Fornals and shipping out Said Benrahma.
But now Leeds are looking to use the money from West Ham to sign their target.
Fabrizio Romano has told Give Me Sport says Rowe is Leeds’ top target to replace Summerville with the club looking to do a deal as soon as possible.
It has been reported Leeds will table a £7m bid – although Norwich are likely to try and hold out for more.
London-born Rowe told The Guardian recently that he feels he has a lot of unfinished business in the Premier League.
The Hammers are still very much active in the transfer market.
‘Concrete possibility but nothing close’
Just yesterday a top spokesman at West Ham confirmed the club is still working on deals for several signings because ‘we need a few more’.
Given the talent already at West Ham and the fact Summerville has arrived, one might think a Hammers move for Rowe is now unlikely.
But Leeds won’t want to leave anything to chance as they target a player who thrived under their current boss Farke when he was at Carrow Road.
“Yeah, he’s a possibility. It’s true that his (Rowe) name is one of the ones they (Leeds) are considering internally,” Romano said.
“At the moment, I’m told that still nothing is close to being done, but it’s a concrete possibility. For sure, they will replace Summerville.
“They are assessing all the options, but I think Leeds will be quite fast on this one.”
It will be intriguing to see how this pans out.
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