Agent: Chelsea lowballed Ajax for Mohammed Kudus, never followed up

One of the names that popped up in the Chelsea rumor mill this summer was Mohammed Kudus, with the Blues strongly linked with the attacking midfielder, then of Ajax Amsterdam. Of course, we were strongly linked with just about any footballer of some promise under the age of 22 — and ended up signing more than our fair share of them — but the Kudus links persistent for a while, before ebbing away as we turned out attentions elsewhere.

Eventually, Kudus would end up moving to West Ham United just before the end of the transfer window, despite Ajax insisting earlier that he was definitely not going to go anywhere. Ah, Silly Season!

And speaking of silliness, Kudus’ agent, Jen Mendelewitsch has revealed that Chelsea were easily in the driver’s seat for the then 22-year-old’s transfer, but after agreeing personal terms and seeing our opening bid knocked back, we just ghosted the whole situation — apparently due to our “obsession” with Moisés Caicedo. West Ham would end up paying over twice as much as our €20m lowball.

Kudus and Caicedo don’t play the same position, and the latter certainly seemed the bigger need at the time, to help shore up the defensive side of our midfield. Eventually, we would add another attacker, too, in Cole Palmer from Manchester City.

So far, both of those decisions look the correct ones, even if Kudus has three goals in eight West Ham appearances so far.