David Gold, David Sullivan and Karren Brady’s slack efforts in the summer transfer market ensured West Ham United failed in their chase of new Tottenham Hotspur signing Joe Rodon.

What’s the word?

Spurs confirmed their capture of Rodon on Friday, having agreed to pay Swansea City a rumoured £15million to make the 22-year-old Jose Mourinho’s seventh signing of the summer.

Rodon, who joins the north London for an initial £11m with £4m in future add-ons and has signed a five-year contract, made 54 appearances for Swansea since emerging from their academy in 2018.

Jacks boss Steve Cooper had called on the centre-half to start all four of their Championship fixtures this term, in which the Liberty Stadium outfit kept three clean sheets to open the campaign unbeaten and two points behind early leaders Bristol City and Reading.

West Ham had considered approaching Swansea over the potential of signing Rodon this summer, with The Guardian’s Jacob Steinberg proposing in late September that the Wales international was being assessed along with Arsenal’s Calum Chambers and AS Monaco full-back Djibril Sidibe.

But a deal for Rodon was deemed too expensive, opening a clear path for Spurs to push on and finalise their £15m deal for a defender who started each of Wales’ October internationals for his fifth, sixth and seventh caps.

GSB’s slack efforts prove costly

While West Ham are said to have walked away from any deal to sign Rodon after deeming the £15m fee needed to be too expensive, the slack efforts of Gold, Sullivan and Brady to offload those deemed surplus to requirements must be held partly responsible for the 22-year-old joining Spurs.

From the end of the prolonged 2019/20 season, the Irons were touting the likes of Felipe Anderson on the transfer market in the hopes their departures would raise needed funds that could go towards improving David Moyes’ squad. But the Brazilian remained in east London right until the international market closed when he joined FC Porto on loan.

The departure of academy graduate Grady Diangana was also said to have been sanctioned so that the £18m raised could be put toward signing a new defender, and yet Rodon was deemed too expensive and it was not until the final week of the domestic window that Watford’s Craig Dawson was signed on loan.

Had GSB managed to offload more of the deadwood soon enough, then West Ham may have been able to persist with negotiations for Rodon and not see the 22-year-old join London rivals Tottenham in what he has since described as a dream move.

“It’s a massive honour,” Rodon said of his transfer, via quotes by the Daily Mail. “This is a massive club, and I can’t wait to get started.

“Coming from my boyhood club to this position is only something I could have dreamed of. It’s been a great week and to finish it off in this way is a dream come true.”

AND in other news, West Ham potentially saved £16m in being snubbed by a summer target.