OPINION
West Ham United co-chairmen David Gold and David Sullivan have to juggle a number of issues in their ownership of the club, and one of them is which player departures to rubber stamp.
They will have the final say, after all, and so you have to wonder if they will end up regretting a major call they made on Monday, namely the sale of midfielder Edimilson Fernandes.
Look, we can’t pretend that the 23-year-old was ever a first team star for the Hammers. However, there’s no doubt that he was a player with a lot of potential.
He’d just enjoyed a terrific season on loan in Serie A with Fiorentina, and Gold and Sullivan clearly took this opportunity to sell him to German club Mainz while his value was high.
However, you have to question the wisdom of that decision. Manuel Pellegrini’s squad isn’t overflowing with talented central midfielders, and some of those he does have don’t exactly inspire confidence.
Pedro Obiang is as inconsistent as it gets and his future is uncertain, while Carlos Sanchez is a below-par player who is coming off a major injury. Jack Wilshere, meanwhile, cannot be relied upon to stay fit. That leaves Pellegrini with only Declan Rice and Mark Noble as consistent options.
With that being the case, is now really the right time to give a promising young central midfielder the boot? Probably not, you’d think. Fernandes could go on to excel in the Bundesliga, which would make his departure all the more baffling.
Maybe West Ham have a central midfield signing lined up this summer, but otherwise this sale is surely a move that’s going to backfire.
