Hamliton Vice Chairman Ronnie MacDonald has called West Ham shambolic for their handling of a £2m plus deal for Stephen Hendrie.
He told the Daily Express
“We had agreed terms with Crystal Palace for Stephen to go there once the transfer window opened but unfortunately Neil Warnock lost his job so that fell away.But prior to that West Ham had expressed an interest so we then opened a dialogue with them, they made an offer which was acceptable and our representatives met with their representatives in London. The fee was agreed, Stephen agreed personal terms through his agent and they were meant to come up to our place on New Year’s Day to sign off the deal and didn’t appear. They then said they would up on the 4th but didn’t appear so I just cancelled the deal.I’m getting phone calls from London saying they want to resurrect it but as fas as I’m concerned it’s off. I’m presuming they have seen Stephen playing against Celtic when he did really well for a kid and changed their mind but I have not changed my mind.I always like to deal woth add-ons and with add-ons the fee for Stephen wuld have been well in excess of £2million. We are sorry for the boy because he is not getting his big move.I think West Ham are shambolic and if that’s how they carry on their business that’s up to them, They should do things properly.”
Media reports yesterday suggested West Ham had a £2million bid rejected for the Hamilton left-back Stephen Hendrie. The Scottish 20-year-old is out of contract in the summer and is said to be attracting interest from a number of Premier League clubs including West Ham, Crystal Palace and Swansea. Hendrie has made more than 100 appearances for the Scottish Premiership club but has made it clear he is ready to move to a bigger club.
Speaking before his 20th birthday in January Hendrie said: ‘I’m 20 next week, I don’t think that’s too young or too old to move from Hamilton.I’m a Celtic fan and obviously the Premier League is one of the best leagues in the world. That’s my dream – you want to reach as high a level as you can and if I can get to the Premier League that would be brilliant. But the Accies would need to see if it’s the right offer. If it is, they say they’ll never stand in anybody’s way. They are a great club like that. If they accepted it, there is not much I could do. It’s good massive clubs are getting mentioned. But I just want to get my head down and keep doing well.Just now, the Accies are flying and I’m loving every minute of it. We just want to finish as high as we can.”
An West Ham insider told ClaretandHugh this morning
“We didn’t value the player at £2m, he’s a Bosman in the summer. We only saw him as back- up. They were too greedy and will now get a token fee in the Summer as its across border move."