West Ham expressed their delight at signing Crysencio Summerville from Leeds United.
Understandably so given the 22-year-old was officially the best player in the Championship with Leeds last season.
The flying Dutchman’s departure was inevitable when Leeds failed to win promotion back to the Premier League.
The Hammers won the race for Summerville’s signature, though, in a deal worth £26m.
Details of the move were shrouded in mystery at the request of Leeds United’s board.
Leeds made West Ham sign a non-disclosure agreement regarding the fee paid for Summerville. The club confirmed as much in the official statement announcing his departure.
Various theories have been circulating as to why.There was speculation West Ham paid as little as £20m and as much £34m for the Dutch winger.It was that Summerville had a £25m release clause which could only be activated if a club paid it in one go.
That is almost unheard of in modern transfers, which are usually spread over the term of a player’s contract.
West Ham eventually negotiated to pay over instalments but had to pay an extra 1.3m as a result.Replacing Summerville will be a very difficult challenge for Leeds.
Almost as difficult as it might be for him to force his way into the team at West Ham it seems.
Summerville was named as a substitute in West Ham’s season opening defeat to Aston Villa last weekend.
While Leeds could have sorely done with his talents in a 0-0 draw at West Brom, Summerville had a watching brief at the London Stadium until coming on in the 73rd minutes.He made an instant impact, looking extremely sharp and exciting, impressing Hammers fans. But West Ham missed some gilt-edged chances to take a draw from the game as they lost 2-1.Fast forward a week and Summerville was once again on the bench when West Ham went to Crystal Palace.
This time, though, he did not get off the bench as the Hammers won 2-0.Some of his new teammates, such as Tomas Soucek, could be seen consoling the understandably frustrated winger at full-time.
Now unused Summerville has sent a cryptic post just weeks after leaving Leeds for West Ham but it bodes well.
Taking to his Instagram Stories, Summerville posted a message against a black background saying: “If God is making you wait, then be prepared to receive more than you asked for. God’s plan.”