David Moyes made a massive transfer blunder during his first tenure as West Ham United manager.
That is because he turned down the opportunity to sign James Maddison, now a key Leicester City man and England international, from Norwich City.
Six months before the Foxes moved in for the midfielder, we put in a £12m bid, which wasn’t enough, and Moyes decided not to make another mood, as ExWHUemployee stated on The West Ham Way Podcast back in August 2020: ““The bad thing about Maddison was, Maddison was playing for Norwich – [who were] in the Championship – against Chelsea in the FA Cup and he was judged on that game and [it was] decided that he wasn’t good enough to play for West Ham.
“He would have been perfect but Moyes judged him on one game.”
We are now in danger of seeing another opportunity go by due to Moyes’ wariness, as Claret and Hugh report that he is not keen on signing Celtic’s Kristoffer Ajer, who is available for £20m.
In May of this year, 90min reported that the 6’6″ Norwegian was being targeted by Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan among others.
He has started the Scottish Premiership season strongly, recording 1.6 tackles, 1.3 interceptions and 2.8 clearances a game, while making just 0.6 fouls and being dribbled past 0.2 times.
Should West Ham move for Ajer?
Yes
No
It should also be noted that, at 22 years old, there is plenty of room for him to develop further as a player, meaning there is real potential that his value will only rise.
With all of the above considered, it is difficult to see why Moyes wouldn’t want him – especially as we are so keen on signing a centre-back, with ExWHUemployee linking Bayer Leverkusen pair Jonathan Tah and Aleksandar Dragovic, as well as Torino’s Armando Izzo.
Moyes’ acquisitions have proven to be good ones so far, with Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen joining from Slavia Prague and Hull City, while Soucek was reunited with Vladimir Coufal, who had a positive debut.
However, his wariness could see the club miss out on another acquisition that would likely add value at London Stadium.
