West Ham starlet who snubbed Barca & Madrid is now playing in Cyprus

This summer, West Ham United allegedly became the winners of the transfer window when they spent a whopping £120.2m on eight permanent signings and two loan deals. The Hammers also made eight permanent sales, including Flynn Downes, who joined Southampton for a fee of around £18m.

Their most expensive signing of the summer was bringing Max Kilman from Wolves to work alongside his ex-manager, Julen Lopetegui. Kilman has already made 14 appearances for the Hammers this season, providing one assist, contributing to four clean sheets, and totalling 1,260 minutes played.

Niclas Füllkrug does, however, look like it could turn out to be a costly mistake, only making four appearances for the club since joining, managing 137 minutes played, and is yet to register a goal or assist.

The last window before 2024/25 that wasn’t overseen by David Moyes was all the way back in 2018/1, and that also seems to have had some expensive mistakes in there.

West Ham’s 2018/19 transfer window

In the 2018/19 season, West Ham spent around £84m signing ten new players on permanent deals. Their most expensive signing of that window was Felipe Anderson, who joined from Lazio for a fee of around £36m.

The Brazilian made 73 appearances for the Hammers, scoring 12 goals, providing 13 assists, and totalling 5,847 minutes. He then returned to Lazio just three years after leaving for a fee of around £2.6m.

Andriy Yarmolenko turned out to be a good value deal, as he went on to make 86 appearances for the club, netting 13 goals and providing six assists but the Ukraine international left the club at the end of his contract in 2022, now playing for Dynamo Kyiv in his home country.

The only player still at the club signed in the 2018/19 season is Lukasz Fabianski, who has made 206 appearances for the club, conceded 272 goals and kept 54 clean sheets. The Polish shot-stopper has made seven appearances so far this term, keeping three clean sheets and only shopping ten goals.

West Ham also sold a U21 player during this window, who was compared to a Ballon d’Or winner, joining Watford for around £1m.

What happened to Domingos Quina’s career

Domingos Quina was on the verge of breaking into the West Ham first team back in 2017, regarded as one of the hottest prospects in English football, and being compared to Ballon d’Or winner, Luka Modric, by the West Ham coaches.

Quina made 32 appearances for the West Ham U21 side, scoring three goals, providing two assists, and totaling 2,646 minutes played. However, he only managed six appearances for the first team, totaling just 115 minutes on the field.

The Portuguese midfielder went on to play 37 times for Watford, scoring three goals and providing one assist at the club, but now finds himself playing in Cyprus at just 25 years old, after not having the same career path many expected him to have.

It’s a remarkable turn of events for a player who snubbed the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona when his brother persuaded him to put pen to paper with the Hornets instead.

Quina now currently plays for Pafos FC, and has made 11 appearances so far this season. His side are currently top of the Cypriot First Division, but many will wonder how the Hammers starlet went from one of the most highly regarded youngsters in England to playing in a league below where his potential once lay.

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