The betrayal felt quick, immediate – I wasn’t even able to process the pain because it came like a kiss on the cheek without foresight. Of course if I had been an ITK maybe I would have known it was ‘the Last Supper’ for Mo Kudus in the preceding months at West Ham, but not being up on the gossip or locker room talk, I felt like a disciple who was betrayed by a brother when I found out that Mo Kudus had interest in a move to Tottenham Hotspur and it was the only club he was interested in – not just a possibility but a priority.
This was especially painful because I thought, second to Jarrod Bowen, he was West Ham’s best player of the 2024/25 season. Although he didn’t live up to the hype of 2023 with his 14 goal contributions, at eight contributions in 24/25, he was certainly in the top three of West Ham players for most duels won, ball recoveries, tackles won and pass accuracy to mention a few. With 89 dribbles completed, watching him dance around defenders in the final third was exhilarating, at the same time only having Bowen or Aaron Wan-Bissaka to play off, I was worried that eventually this £38million steal from Ajax might have his head turned. And after a lacklustre season with only him and Bowen showing competitive Premier League quality it was only a matter of time I suppose.
Underdogs, Romantics, and the Cost of Loyalty
As a West Ham fan there is a double mindedness when it comes to being an underdog – on one side, you’re always hopeful and ready for the big payoff when you actually start winning or fighting at least. On the other side there’s always an under confidence when you have a great player – you’re like a jealous lover insecure that someone is waiting to take your prize away, feeling like you’re not good enough for that player, or wishing the team was playing better for them to be excited to be on your team. We’re not just underdogs – we’re romantics. We fall in love with players who were never ours to keep. Without tribal love or loyalty for the East End, you have to rely on monetary or social incentives to make the player love West Ham. The old school devotion that you would have from Noble, Bonds, Brooking are gone and you’re lucky to get the rare amounts of loyalty from a player like Tomas Soucek who wasn’t brought up in the area, but he’s still potato salad – not pie and mash.
The £55m Question: Profit, PSR, and Pride
So while disenchantment was on the table like a rotten bit of jellied eels and interest from other clubs a possibility, I never expected that we’d parlay with our fiercest PL rival, as I thought there was an unspoken pact among the owners that we don’t deal or trade with Tottenham. Dropping the £85 million release clause to sell him for £55m seemed like added salt in the wound, because if you might turn off your emotions about the whole experience, at least a proper bit of business would suffice but yet again, it’s another dream player that we didn’t profit off. Sure we may have excised an extra £5 million from the Spurs in a Tottenham Tax as their high bid was 50million but this seems too small to be a real relevant hit. Was the small profit from Kudus’ sale enough to offset the pain of his loss? Was there another 30 pieces of silver somewhere else in the deal?
According to Karren Brady, selling Kudus may have just kept us compliant with the PL’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) which though passed in 2015 have grown significant application fangs in 2023 – both Aston Villa and Everton were docked points from being noncompliant. Under the rules you can’t exceed £105m cumulative loss in three years; selling Kudus before June 30th helped us stay compliant. In addition to this we were only allowed a £234 million cumulative spend for the 24/25 year. Selling Kudus opened up funds, to be spent on more excited players, kept us under our spend and under our loss, while making profit.
Potter, Thomas Frank, and the Denial
But what about Kudus being on the ascendency with Potter? From an initial observation you may think Mo would have been excited to play with Graham Potter who is a younger, fresher attacking alternative to Moyes and even Lopetegui, but Potter’s style relies more on positional discipline, quick transitions and fluid interchanges, and Kudus tends to hold onto the ball and dribble more often than rely on a quick passing game with teammates. He also favours the right wing – Bowen’s position – and having to adjust to attacking midfield or leftwing wing didn’t suit him as well.
With European football on the horizon, Thomas Frank as an inspiration for developing his direct style and a chance to insert himself on the wing, the reasons for leaving West Ham are there, but for a man who went from being banned for five matches after fighting two Spurs players (Micky van de Ven and Sarr) away at the Spuds stadium in October of 2024 to stating on July 10th: “I’ve always wanted to play at the highest level… how big the club is, the history, the Champions League as well. So, it’s a big moment” there’s a pain that West Ham fans won’t soon forget. His transfer will be set alongside other club betrayal legends like Paul Ince, Frank Lampard Jr., Payet, and Jermaine Defoe.
And even if Kudus the Judas didn’t trade the hammers for the metaphoric nails in West Ham’s season this year like Judas Iscariot’s actions precipitated the nails that went into the cross, he did at least commit a less serious offense in leaving us when we needed him for a revival. At his medical when the Spurs doctors examined his heart he said, “you’ll hear Spurs there” with the doctor responding, “I hear the cockerel”. Perhaps, the allusion is more like Peter’s betrayal after his denial of who he follows in public only to hear the cock’s crow reminding him of the truth? That doesn’t make for as great a chant from the terraces, but I’m sure there will be enough material for West Ham fans to use the next derby day to affect Kudus on the field.
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