Manor Solomon has been told to find a new club this summer by Roberto De Zerbi, who confirmed the Israeli winger is not in his plans this season. Previous reporting suggested that Solomon at present had two options — a return to Fiorentina where he spent last season on loan, and a move to West Ham in the Championship as the Hammers try and put together a team that can bounce right back up to the Premier League after this coming season.
But according to David Ornstein, talks between West Ham and Spurs
are currently off for financial reasons, with West Ham balking at some clauses Spurs want to put in the deal.
According to the Ornacle, West Ham are willing to purchase Solomon for a transfer fee of £5m, but are resistant to some extra clauses Spurs want to include in the deal, including a bonus should West Ham promote to the Premier League this season.
I don’t want to necessarily cast aspersions on the buying team here, but it’s West Ham so what the hell — cheaping out over clauses on a £5m deal for a player after selling Mateus Fernandes to us for £85m feels pretty churlish as far as I’m concerned. It’s not like West Ham doesn’t have money and this feels like cheaping out. Now, we don’t know the specifics of Tottenham’s ask — maybe they’re trying to back load significant fees because they know £5m is a pretty shockingly low price for a player in this market. On the other hand, Spurs acquired Solomon for nothing in the first place and in pretty icky circumstances, essentially poaching a Shakhtar player for nothing due to the war in Ukraine. £5m would represent a £5m profit over what Spurs actually spent to acquire him, so maybe I’m being too harsh.
Ornstein also mentions that Fiorentina’s offer is not financially viable to Spurs. How hard is it to get a guy we don’t want and who we spent nothing to acquire off our books? Apparently pretty hard.
