Time Will Tell If West Ham Were Right To Dump Ayew In January

The forward was sold back to Swansea City but did the Irons make a mistake?

- James Gavin

There are reasons why the sale of Andre Ayew last month looked good.

Recouping almost the entire transfer fee paid for a player, who hasn’t really delivered to the expected level, appeared good business.

But in that 18-month period transfer prices have inflated hugely, so £18million this window compared to £20million in the summer of 2016 has a much bigger gap in real terms.

A question worth asking following Ayew’s exit surrounds the purchase of Hugill for £10million, would you rather Hugill and £10million or keep Andre Ayew? Only time will tell for that question.

On the whole I disagree with the sale, I think Ayew had more to prove and could have been given more time to do this.

Ayew had other offers, so clearly waiting till the summer would have been a possibility.

I doubt the transfer fee wouldn’t have been much lower either, although Swansea perhaps paid a bit more because it was January.

Given our injury troubles and Premier League safety far from guaranteed, I think waiting on the decision would have been best for the team.

When Ayew arrived as a new club-record signing, Bilic lauded him as a special signing and labelled Ayew as the marquee signing for the new stadium.

But just 30 minutes into his first competitive start, Ayew limped off and was gone for a few months.