They say if you can’t beat them, join them but Chelsea seem to be flipping that on its head when it comes to West Ham.
When Thomas Tuchel was in charge at Chelsea, West Ham’s technical director Tim Steidten came close to joining the Blues.
Coveted for the excellent work he did at Bayer Leverkusen, Todd Boehly and co wanted Steidten at Stamford Bridge to oversee transfers.
As confirmed at the time by the likes of Fabrizio Romano, West Ham beat the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool to Steidten.
The lure of eventual full control proving the difference between what the Hammers were offering and the advances from elsewhere.
Hammers beat Boehly to Steidten
One of Steidten’s first acts at West Ham was to reportedly beat Chelsea and other clubs to the signing of Mohammed Kudus.
If Steidten is shrewd, knowledgeable and methodical in his execution of transfer business, at the other end of that particular scale sits Chelsea chief Boehly.
It’s fair to say the approaches to transfers of Chelsea and West Ham contrast wildly.
One is – by and large – looking at sensible deals for versatile if somewhat unproven stars at reasonable prices based on extensive scouting.
The other, albeit with far loftier expectations and ambitions, seems to be simply copying transfer targets and throwing money at players to beat rivals to deals. Like a real life version of Football Manager.
Chelsea to embarrass West Ham by signing star?
Ironically the ultimate goal behind West Ham and Chelsea’s plans is not too dissimilar. That being to build an athletic, skilful and exciting team around young stars.
The big difference seems to be that Chelsea appear to have a bottomless pit of funds while Steidten reportedly has just £51.5m and whatever else he can raise in sales to sign another seven players for West Ham’s big rebuild.
So it is vital Steidten is able to get deals done for any quality targets who are available at knockdown prices.
But Chelsea could embarrass West Ham by signing a star they’ve chased for two years.
The Hammers have been heavily linked with Lille forward Jonathan David since Steidten’s arrival last summer.
In fact he has been on West Ham’s radar since the summer before that but elected to sign Gianluca Scamacca instead.
Journalist Graeme Bailey recently revealed Canada forward David, who has scored 147 goals for club and country in his career so far, is very much still wanted by West Ham this summer.
Steidten is known to keep close tabs on Ligue 1 for potential targets and David is one of them.
Especially as he is available for a heavily discounted fee as a result of the fact he’s entering the last year of his Lille contract.
Chelsea leapfrog West Ham for David
He also fits West Ham’s recruitment strategy as he is 24 and extremely versatile.
David is up for sale and it was confirmed by reports in England and France this weekend that the Hammers remain interested.
But after tracking the striker for two years, Chelsea have leapfrogged West Ham in just two days.
According to The Athletic’s David Ornstein, Chelsea not only suddenly want David, they’ve even held talks about signing him.
Ornstein says Chelsea have spoken to David’s representatives. And although no official approach has been made to Lille by the Blues, the journalist has pointed out the two clubs share very good relations.
Reports have claimed David could be available for between £20-25m.
That is too good an opportunity to miss out on for Steidten and West Ham given their tight budget.
It would be a bitter irony to then miss out to a rival for whom money is no object and virtually no player out of reach.
West Ham’s only hope now is that David places the emphasis on game time in his decision making.
Because he would certainly get more of that at the London Stadium than as part of Chelsea’s bloated squad.