As if David Sullivan is not under enough pressure already at West Ham, Wayne Rooney is applying even more with his verdict on Spurs star Mohammed Kudus.
West Ham fans let Mohammed Kudus know what they think of him when Spurs visited the London Stadium last month.
Tottenham ran out comfortable 3-0 winners against Graham Potter’s weak, featherweight Hammers in a defeat which sparked the first conversations with Nuno Espirito Santo.
While Kudus ran a gauntlet of hate that day, the only people to truly blame for Kudus joining West Ham’s bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur is the club’s board.
At the end of the day ambitious, well-run clubs simply do not sell their star players to a direct rival.
West Ham board only ones to blame for Kudus joining Spurs
But that’s exactly what West Ham chief David Sullivan and the board did by allowing Kudus to join Tottenham.
Not only that, West Ham sold the Ghanaian to Spurs for £54.5m – some £30m below his utterly pointless £85m release clause.
Hammers fans had made peace with the fact Kudus was always going to be leaving in the summer when West Ham’s owners started pleading PSR poverty.
The Hammers could have sold him to Chelsea – who even agreed terms with Kudus – but turned down a player plus money swap deal involving Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall because they wanted pure cash.
Kudus was poor last season by the high standards he set himself in his debut campaign and with Ajax before that.
Deep down, though, West Ham fans know he is a player waiting to explode in the right team with the right manager.
The fact that is Spurs makes it all the more unbearable.
West Ham made their own bed and the fact they had to sell to Spurs for the first time in over 14 years speaks volumes of the state the club is in.
It added further fuel to the fire as West Ham fans protest against their owners in a bid to force them out.
Hammers supporters are planning to boycott the next home game after the international break as their latest show of activism until Sullivan and vice-chair Karren Brady leave or step aside.
Rooney leaves Sullivan sick with regret over Spurs star Kudus
Should Wolves beat Brighton at home, West Ham will go into the October international break bottom of the Premier League table.
Many Hammers supporters have been telling Tottenham fans Kudus isn’t all that.
Yes his end product has needed improvement, but West Ham fans know the heights he can hit when on song.
Perhaps it is a self-coping mechanism having suffered the ignominy of seeing Declan Rice sold to Arsenal too.
Hammers fans have legitimately asked why the club moved to their soulless athletics bowl if they are having to sell their top players to London rivals.
Now Wayne Rooney leaves West Ham chief Sullivan sick with regret over Spurs star Kudus.
It has emerged that Kudus wanted to leave the Hammers after his stunning debut season.
Knowing that – and with his stock high – West Ham should have taken action and moved him on for a more fitting valuation than the paltry £54.5m they ended up getting from Spurs.
It is another example of West Ham being badly run and not having a clear, coherent strategy in place.
Instead they knew they had a player agitating for a move who then tanked in his performances all last season in order to get it at a vastly reduced price.
What’s becoming perfectly clear is that Kudus is looking like the player who starred for West Ham in that debut season where he registered 14 goals and six assists.
The Black Stars ace got another assist and scored his first goal for Tottenham as they beat Leeds 2-1 at Elland Road on Saturday.
The result puts Tottenham third in the table going into the international break.
Rooney hails ex Hammer Kudus as ‘top signing’ for Spurs
Kudus put in a man of the match display as he ranked first in all key metrics including duels won (10), successful dribbles (6), shots (3), touches in the opposition box (4) and sprints (20).
Rooney says Kudus is helping take Spurs to the next level and has been a breath of fresh air.
Alan Shearer agreed, saying the former Hammers attacker is now Spurs’ best player.
And Sullivan will surely be listening with his head in his hands.
“I think he’s been a breath of fresh air,” Rooney said about Kudus on Match of the Day.
“You look at the stats from the game he’s first in everything…
“He’s had a real impact for Tottenham this season and he’s got four assists this season, joint first in the Premier League, he’s by far had the most successful dribbles in the league and all that was missing was the goal.
“That goal will push him on that next step now and he’s been a real top signing.”
Can things really get much worse for West Ham from here?
Two years on from winning the Europa Conference League, the Hammers are surely now at rock bottom as they watch Kudus shining for Spurs, Rice scoring against them for Arsenal and sweat on Wolves’ result so they can stay off the bottom of the table a fifth of the way through the new season.