We had a “take it, or leave it” unofficial offer on the table for a couple of months that seemingly palace kept ignoring in a game of chicken. Assuming that he was a bigger priority than was actually the case and that eventually we would blink and come back to them with a better offer. In the end it was palace who blinked And told us with two days to go in the window that the offer that had been on their desk for several months was actually a decent starting point for negotiations.
The long and the short was, we were seemingly pretty content on the leave side of a take it or leave it offer
Palace were an absolute shambles from an operational perspective this summer with the shit going on with the US owner and the loss of their director of football. Remember, this is a club who missed out on Europa league football because they gave UEFA a joke email address.
Sure but if we’d offered £40m and the manager had done the same it wouldn’t have made any difference. We had four CBs without Guehi. Maybe we let Gomez go if Guehi came in but everything points to it being driven by opportunity rather than desperate need. And if that’s the case that’s probably why we didn’t feel the need to raise our offer.
I’d have liked him here in the summer. I’d still like him here if a sensible deal can be agreed now or with him in the summer.
That i dont know. It isnt the first time we’ve gone light into a season while holding out for a preferred option. And by way of comparison look at our other negotiations this summer - we appeared to up our bids for Wirtz, Ekitike and Isak to get them done.
Unlikely though. It was being said at the time that the club had been open to losing one of Guehi or Eze that window, so we could have moved the deal forward before Arsenal closed the Eze one. Secondly, and more importantly, Palace would have had more time to source an acceptable replacement with more certainty open to their targets. and a little more cash to play around with.
Despite West Ham’s defensive issues Julio has played only 5 games for West Ham this season, two at 90 minutes and the other three for between 1 & 7 minutes. There was a lot of talk he failed to get a deal at Palace because of his fitness problems.
Being opportunistic is the point I and @Limiescouse were making.
Our situation may not have been desperate, but it seems really odd that we thought it worth making an offer for an England international that was marginally higher than what we received for Quansah and weren’t willing to raise it even a little bit more and sooner to close a deal. Nor come back in for him when we’ve lost one of our CBs for the season, another injured and a third is in poor form.
But we didn’t need to raise it. They accepted our bid and then pulled out. Money wasn’t the issue and there’s no way we can say what amount might have expedited a deal but what’s obvious is that they felt there were other needs to address before this one.
Right, but the issue was due to the lateness of them accepting the deal and failing to get their shit done in response. Had we have offered more from the outset, which is what Palace were seemingly expecting we would eventually do, then Palace would have said yes sooner and not so many moving pieces to get right on the final day.
The question is why didnt we offer more, and I think us 3 at least all agree that it was because we didnt think improving any more at CB was enough of a priority to go above what we were already offering. At that price it was viewed as a nice opportunistic deal that incrementally improved us. Above that price the improvement wasnt enough and we’d wait for other business to present itself
But they wanted to do their business first. The offer sat with them for weeks whilst we waited for them to do that before they accepted it and then changed their mind.
Sure, chuck another £10m on it and it speed it up but that’s 30% more than we think he’s worth.
It’s weird how we are re-prosecuting the Guehi summer business. We had a deal all but in the bag for Guehi. They pulled out at the last second, even after the player did his media work as an assumed Liverpool signing. It happens.
Unfortunately it is compounded by Leoni’s injury, as we now look threadbare and really need to be signing a central defender this January.
If the January numbers for Guehi are starting to get silly, we shouldn’t be held over a barrel. Sign Ordonez now and move on. Then add another central defender in summer, hopefully Schlotterbeck.
Half way through the winter window and even the unreliable rumours are quiet. Maybe it’s going to be a slim window.
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I doubt we are in for a starting CB but we will likely have a major injury in that spot first game after the window closes. Murphys Law.
The point about us being too clever by half makes sense,given we were/are pretty thin at CB,if Guehi was seen to be the answer,may the stops could have been pulled out,unless we had other options…clearly not.
That said if he wants to go to City…enjoy!
That must obviously have been the rationale. But it was a mistake and that’s not even with the benefit of hindsight. Quansah should only have been let go if he was replaced with an upgrade.
Our normally very astute recruitment team got this one wrong.