OPINION
West Ham were right to crush Amiens forward Moussa Konate’s dreams of a move to England by not signing him this summer.
The London Evening Standard reported on Friday that the 25-year-old forward was disappointed over not sealing a move to England as he had hoped that the Hammers or Leeds United would have tried to sign him.
However as the newspaper reports neither English side attempted to secure his services ahead of the transfer window slamming shut.
The Hammers were first linked with making a move for Konate in June after France Football claimed that the Premier League side were in the race to sign him.
The French outlet’s report even claimed that Amiens weren’t willing to sell their star attacker for any price under their £13million valuation of him.
Konate scored 13 goals in 33 league appearances for the Ligue 1 club last season and proved that he knew exactly where the back of the net was in France’s top division.
While the 25-year-old got the goals for his side in his latest campaign, he still didn’t look a player capable of being a force in the Premier League.
The attacker, who made two brief appearances for Senegal at the World Cup in Russia, while powerful in the air, does struggle to hold the ball up for his side and is very clumsy when it comes to his passes.
Also while you can only score against the opponents you come up against, it’s one thing being a lethal finisher in Ligue 1 but whole another story delivering the goods on a regular basis in England’s Premier League.
Konate may have been able to surprise people in the English top-flight but given his £13million price tag then it would have been a gamble to take a chance on him.
This is especially the case when you consider that Manuel Pellegrini successfully boosted his attacking options by purchasing Lucas Perez from Arsenal for just £4million (BBC) and he is player that at least has some experience of delivering the goods in the Premier League.
Therefore the Hammers were right to crush Konate’s dream of moving to England this summer as given his price tag and the option they ended up taking, it was a wise decision not to sign him.
