Uhmm. Not sure what to make of this whole Young & Mears transfer saga, if indeed there is one. Only, of course there is one.
Luke Young was West Ham’s number one transfer target this summer and they have spent the last two months pursuing him during which time Luke put in a transfer request, moaned about broken promises and refused a new lucrative contract. Today, however, all that changed when he pledged his ‘future’ to Charlton Athletic. Although how much of his future exactly has he pledged ? Well, I reckon the remaining year of his current contract only. Nowhere in
this story from the official CAFC website are there quotes from the man himself and nowhere does it suggest that he has extended his current contract beyond the remaining year. Just pledged his future. That could be a week, a year or three years.
But what has brought about this dramatic change of events ? After all, we all expected Youngy to depart for around 4m and Mears to join as replacement following weeks of wrangling with PNE over the fee. Did West Ham give up their chase ? Did Luke, as has been suggested in some circles, fail a medical at Upton Park ? This seems the most likely scenario although to fail a medical a fee must have been agreed with Charlton for his services and nowhere has it been reported that this was the case. However, Preston’s
acceptance over the weekend of an offer from ourselves for right-back Tyrone Mears seems to suggest a deal for Young had been done. If Young wasn't on his way out would we still have been after Mears ? I think not.
Now add into the mix that following talks with Charlton on Monday, Tyrone Mears remained in London for talks today with West Ham. Would West Ham really have switched their attentions that quickly to Mears ? Would they have given up so quickly on Young ? Unlikely, I suggest. I would have proffered the argument that West Ham began a pursuit of Mears to force our hand so that we’d agree to sell Young and then buy Mears ourselves as planned. However, PNE’s website says that Mears is to sign for West Ham soon and so that little scenario can be put to bed. Something dramatic obviously happened to trigger this unlikely turn of events. Young to West Ham, Myers to Charlton has suddenly become Myers to West Ham. A can of worms if ever I saw one.
Unfortunately, either because a fee couldn’t be agreed or because he did fail a medical, we are left in a far from satisfactory situation. Unless Luke does sign a contract extension in the next few days, and let’s hope he does, we have a player who was clearly unhappy, for whatever reason, and the handing in of a transfer request confirms this, seeing out the final year of his contract which at the end of he will walk away on a Bosman. And we have waved goodbye to a fee in excess of £3m and probably closer to £4m. Was this sensible ? If that is what happened of course. We may never know but this has been a long drawn out saga that may not be over just yet. Is there a twist in the tale ?
Optimistically, maybe, just maybe, Iain Dowie ran through the list of signings that are going to start arriving at The Valley anyday now and Luke realised he had no option but to stay and play alongside such great players. Nah, maybe not.
