After a couple of weeks in which very little happened, former West Ham United striker Carlton Cole was not short of talking points when he returned to punditry duty; From Mohammed Kudus to Kyle Walker-Peters and Callum Wilson.
The Hammers had to wait until July 10th for the first big deal of the summer to occur.
Mohammed Kudus’ departure from the London Stadium always felt likely to be an unblocking-of-the-ketchup-bottle sort of moment. And, almost immediately after Tottenham Hotspur confirmed Kudus’ arrival in a £54.5 million deal, West Ham United reinvested a third of that windfall bringing El Hadji Malick Diouf to the London Stadium.
The blockage removed, and the sauce now flowing liberally.
You wait a month-and-a-half for one new face, meanwhile, and West Ham could now land three in the space of a week.
Kyle Walker-Peters joins his fellow full-back Diouf, arriving on a free after his contract at Southampton expired. Hammers News can confirm that West Ham have offered Callum Wilson a 12-month deal, too; the striker also pursuing a fresh start upon his exit from Newcastle on July 1st.
Carlton Cole coy on West Ham United’s Callum Wilson chase
Speaking to talkSPORT, a man who now works behind the scenes as West Ham’s Loans and Pathways Manager accepts that things are heading in the right direction in the recruitment department.
Kudus’ sale has freed up valuable funds, after all.
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Hammers News reported all the way back in April that Kyle Walker-Peters agreed a hefty £75,000-a-week deal with West Ham.
Cole expects further signings to arrive soon enough with Harvey Elliott, Tyler Morton and Mads Hermansen among those high on the list.
“There is [new signings on the way]. It’s a work in progress,” says Cole, who scored 68 goals for West Ham during nearly a decade in claret and blue.
“But we’ve got Kyle Walker-Peters, we’ve got a few youngsters [arriving].”
West Ham signed Daniel Cummings from Celtic. Callum Leacock and Josh Kerr both arrived from Northern Irish football, while Connor Brooks adds a ‘high-energy midfield player’ to the club’s youth ranks.
When pressed on Callum Wilson, however, Cole’s response was a little more coy.
“No, no, hold on. Everyone’s saying he’s gone to West Ham but he’s not there yet.”
‘Yet’, of course, being the most important word.
TalkSPORT now say that, as of 3.30 on Friday afternoon, former England international Wilson has agreed terms with West Ham on a ‘minimal’ contract incentivised by goal and appearance bonuses.
Former Aston Villa captain Gabby Agbonlahor felt that West Ham should sign Callum Wilson on one condition; If he was willing to accept a pay-as-you-play deal, or some variation thereupon. It appears that this is exactly the sort of arrangement now destined to take place.
Cole refutes claims that Tottenham stole West Ham’s ‘best player’ in Mohammed Kudus
As for Kudus, Cole effortlessly swept aside a jibe from former Tottenham midfielder Jamie O’Hara.
Spurs have not, as O’Hara cheekily suggested, nabbed West Ham’s ‘best player’, no matter how much they might like to.
Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is a huge Jarrod Bowen fan. And if the Hammers supporters were asked to pick between Bowen crossing the divide or Kudus, the results would weigh extremely heavily in the direction of the latter.
“Jarrod Bowen is our best player [not Kudus],” was Cole’s blunt response.
The aforementioned Carlton Cole is reluctant to label Wilson a ‘West Ham United’ player at this stage, however.
The Ghana international made a bright start to his Tottenham career in pre-season. He assisted Luka Vuskovic’s goal in a 2-0 win at Reading, while providing the corner from which Will Lankshear opened the scoring.