Keith Wyness: This is what 'my West Ham sources' have told me about January payment for Pablo

West Ham United’s January transfer business needs to be reviewed heading into the summer window, according to Keith Wyness.

The former Everton chief executive, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, believes Nuno Espirito Santo’s agent, Jorge Mendes, may have been behind the January signing of striker Pablo.

The Hammers paid Portuguese club Gil Vicente around £21.8million to sign the 22-year-old, who has yet to score a goal for the club.

Pablo has only been used off the bench in the past two matches as West Ham look likely to lose their Premier League status on the final day of the season.

Relegation from the Premier League would mean West Ham would be forced to sell players this summer, and could put the future of Pablo in doubt.

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Everton’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – believes Mendes could be influencing West Ham’s transfer business behind the scenes.

Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast, Wyness states that people inside West Ham also felt the club had “overpaid” for the Brazilian.

He told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “The proof of the pudding has been in Pablo’s performances.

“They have massively overpaid. At the time, I spoke to some of my West Ham sources, and they all felt the same when it actually happened. It’s a question of where is the connection coming with Nuno?

“When Nuno was at Wolves, there was a big connection with his agent, Jorge Mendes, and GestiFute, the agency that he represents and owned, and Nuno was taking a lot of players from that agency.

“Now, we’d have to see if that was a connection that was involved here. It’s often easy to jump to these conclusions, but nevertheless, it does appear that wherever Nuno’s gone, there have been some deals that perhaps are on the higher side.”

West Ham need to win against Leeds and hope that Tottenham lose to Everton to keep their place in the Premier League for another season.

Relegation to the Championship puts the club at risk of losing many of their best players, including captain Jarrod Bowen.

Sources have told Football Insider that Everton will pursue Bowen this summer, as David Moyes looks to raid his former club.

Multiple Premier League sides are expected to pursue Bowen, who can play anywhere across the forward line, and West Ham could net over £20m from any sale.

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