A former international footballer has told a fascinating story about a failed West Ham scouting trip.
Big clubs like West Ham often send scouts all over the world to watch players they may be interested in signing.
Romanian legend Adrian Ilie recently revealed that the Hammers’ scouts attended a game in Bucharest two years ago.
They were keen to observe one of Steaua Bucharest’s key players, but left at half-time unimpressed by the standard.
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West Ham scouts left at half-time after brutal verdict on transfer target
Romania does not have many elite professional footballers, but they have produced a few quality players recently.
Tottenham’s Radu Dragusin, Rayo Vallecano’s Andrei Ratiu and PSV Eindhoven’s Dennis Man are the three best in the current national team.
West Ham must have thought they had identified the next top Romanian talent when they sent scouts to Bucharest.
They intended to watch Steaua Bucharest left winger Octavian Popescu closely in their local derby against Rapid Bucharest.
However, Ilie has explained that the quality of the game was so underwhelming that West Ham’s scouts left at half-time.
“They left at half-time,” Ilie told Fanatik. “People said to them, ‘Where are you going because the match is still being played?’ And they [replied]: ‘What kind of pace is this?’
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“They left at half-time. They had come for Tavi Popescu. At half-time, they said: ‘Let’s go because there’s no pace.”
At the time, Popescu was only 20 or 21 years old and looked as though his future would lie away from Romania.
Unfortunately for Popescu, it appears that West Ham made the correct decision not to bring him to the Premier League.
He has fallen out of favour at FCSB over the past two seasons and is no longer in the national team squad.
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