West Ham Grab Another Saint

Just over two months after West Ham United had signed former Southampton defender Kyle Walker-Peters, they have gone back to St Mary’s and completed a deal for midfielder Mateus Fernandes for a fee that is due to rise to £42m.

The Hammers have been monitoring the player for a considerable amount of time during this transfer window and only agreed a fee with the Saints on Thursday after having their first two bids for the player rejected by the Sky Bet Championship club.

Fernandes becomes the fifth major signing for Head-Coach Graham Potter and his sixth overall this summer.

It is fair to say that all the incomings to the East London club have been slow to arrive, as Potter wanted to assess his squad before he started to add players and it took until July 15 for his first major arrival to be confirmed. However, once that had been done, the former Swansea City and Chelsea boss began to mould his own squad.

It all went quiet on the transfer front again once goalkeeper Mads Hermansen made the move from Leicester City back on August 9 but it seems that in the final four days of business, West Ham’s window has been reinvigorated.

The 21-year-old Portuguese has put pen to paper on a five-year contract in Stratford and is possibly seen as a direct replacement for Edson Álvarez, who secured a season-long loan move to Turkish outfit Fenerbahçe SK.

It is unknown whether the Irons will strengthen the squad further, as more names have been speculated about in the past few days. If they do sign more players before Monday’s 7pm deadline, then readers of this site will be informed.