OK, take this with a huge grain of salt for now, since I’m not super familiar with the Israeli sports media ecosystem. But if this story is accurate, I’d expect it to be reported by the reliable English journos before too long. According to Israel’s Y-Net News, the deal between West Ham and Tottenham for the sale of Manor Solomon has been finalized.
For those of you who don’t want to click through for whatever reason, here is the full content of the piece (and yes, it’s one paragraph long):
Israeli national team star Manor Solomon will transfer tomorrow to West Ham from England’s second division, thus ending his three-year tenure at Tottenham. The transfer fee could increase if West Ham is promoted to the Premier League at the end of the season, in which case it would reach just under £10 million—about half of what Tottenham had hoped to sell Solomon for.
— Y-Net News
The piece doesn’t say what the initial payment is, but earlier reports suggested that Spurs were haggling over a £5m fee, and that tracks pretty well with what we’re seeing in this report piece paragraph. Honestly, Solomon ending up costing West Ham £10m if they promote back to the Premier League is pretty shockingly low, but probably speaks to how ready to leave Manor is, and how ready Tottenham Hotspur is to let Manor go. I’m sure they would’ve liked to get £20m for Manor Solomon, and I’m also sure, extrapolating from this pretty derisive fee, that they’re just happy to see the end of this saga.
So am I, honestly. I can’t think of many more divisive players among the fanbase that has played so few minutes for the club. I’m ready to wash my hands of this whole saga, and hopefully we get confirmation from the English press that this is actually a thing and not a figment of an Israeli sports journalist’s imagination.