Irons made an offer for Joao Palhinha

footsoccer

8 months ago

West Ham have been improving over the past few seasons under David Moyes, as three successive European campaigns would attest.

Though the Scot hasn’t been a universally well received manager by the Irons faithful, his record for the club can stand up to scrutiny with any previous managers that the club have employed.

If there’s one criticism it’s likely to be the style of play that he often employs.

Although successful as mentioned, it couldn’t necessarily be deemed as particularly exciting or forward thinking, and that could be a reason why Fulham’s Joao Palhinha didn’t sign for the club last summer.

West Ham made an excellent offer for Joao Palhinha

According to an interview that the 28-year-old gave to Portuguese outlet O Jogo (subscription required), the Hammers were in for him before Bayern Munich came into the picture.

“At the time, I had received an excellent offer from West Ham and had a conversation with Fulham’s owner, who committed himself to renewing my contract,” he was quoted as saying.

Joao Palhinha was the subject of a bid from West Ham

“I took it as a vote of confidence. I never expected that Bayern would turn up in the final stages of the market.”

Though it’s unlikely the player would ever have moved to the London Stadium – given the choice between the East Londoners and the Bavarians – what the news of the bid does do is provide encouragement to West Ham’s supporters that, perhaps, the club are starting to operate at the top end of the transfer market.

For far too long now West Ham have been known for buying players past their sell-by date and those on the cheap, though as the signings of James Ward-Prowse, Edson Alvarez, Mo Kudus and Dinos Mavropanos showed, things could be changing for the better at the club.