Mohammed Kudus’ agent has revealed that Chelsea failed with a ‘ridiculous’ offer to sign the midfielder ahead of West Ham this summer.
Kudus was allowed to leave Ajax in the summer transfer window and the 23-year-old ended up joining West Ham in a deal worth €41.5million (£35.6m), plus a further €3m (£2.5m) in add-ons.
The Ghana international’s agent, Jennifer Mendelewitsch, has revealed that Kudus was initially offered to Paris Saint-Germain before the French club opted to sign Manuel Ugarte, another Chelsea midfield target, from Portuguese side Sporting CP.
Chelsea had also expressed an interest in signing Kudus but Mendelewitsch claims that the Premier League club did not follow up their initial offer, which was in the region of €15m to €20m (£17.4m to £23.2m).
Mendelewitsch also revealed that Kudus held talks with Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino and had even agreed a contract but feels the club were always prioritising their £115m deal to sign Moises Caicedo from Brighton.
‘He [Kudus] wanted to leave, there weren’t 50,000 clubs who needed a midfielder and could afford him,’ Mendelewitsch told RMC Sport.
‘Obviously, we offered him his profile at PSG. Now, it’s the club’s choice not to not move forward. All clubs have the right to decide that they go to another profile or that it is not their priority.
‘It’s a shame because I think Mohammed Kudus would have been a suitable profile.
‘We reached an agreement with Chelsea, we agreed contractually with Chelsea but the deal did not happen. He spoke with the coach [Pochettino] but in the end it didn’t happen. It didn’t happen because Chelsea made a ridiculous offer to Ajax.
‘There was no counter-offer that followed. Actually, Chelsea did this to a lot of players this summer with very low offers to clubs knowing they wouldn’t be accepted.
