West Ham told to pay £40m for star who is “majestic viewing”

West Ham United have now made three senior signings this summer, but many more are required.

On Saturday, the Hammers announced the signing of veteran England international striker Callum Wilson, arriving on a free transfer after departing Newcastle.

He joins full-backs El Hadji Malick Diouf and Kyle Walker-Peters as the Hammers’ new recruits so far this summer.

However, given that Mohammed Kudus has been sold and Łukasz Fabiański, Kurt Zouma, Vladimír Coufal, Aaron Cresswell, Danny Ings, and Michail Antonio have all been released, Graham Potter will need many more signings if he is to avoid a repeat of last year’s miserable campaign.

So, are the Irons about to spend big to bring in an attacking midfielder who makes for “majestic viewing”?

West Ham targeting reinforcements

Fair to say, West Ham supporters were not very pleased with the sale of Kudus, joining fierce rivals Tottenham Hotspur for a reported fee of £55m.

Not many have made this controversial move across London in recent decades, as the table documents.

As the Irons search for a Kudus replacement, according to the printed edition of The Sun (03/08/2025), as relayed by West Ham Zone, West Ham United have been told by Shakhtar Donetsk to pay £40m if they want to sign target Georgiy Sudakov.

Sébastien Vidal of Weekend Sports reported a few weeks ago that West Ham “have opened initial talks”, stating the club wanted to finalise the move as soon as possible, but this has not come to fruition so far.

Nevertheless, he could still become the third Ukrainian to call East London home, after Serhii Rebrov and Andriy Yarmolenko.

What Heorhiy Sudakov would bring to West Ham

Sudakov, who is 22 years old, has made 142 senior appearances for Shakhtar Donetsk since his senior debut five years ago, accumulating 35 goals and 24 assists.

This includes scoring Champions League goals against Barcelona, BSC Young Boys and Stade Brestois while, already this season, he has featured in all four of the Miners’ Europa League qualifiers, dumping out Ilves and Beşiktaş, now set to face Panathinaikos in the third qualifying round, with the first leg taking place in Athens on Thursday.

Andy Jones of the Athletic describes him as a ‘technically gifted…versatile midfielder’, adding that he is one of the ‘most exciting prospects’ and ‘brightest young talents’ that Eastern Europe has to offer.

Meantime, Shakhtar Donetsk sporting director Serhiy Palkin stated in April that his star man “will definitely move to a top European club this summer”, with António Mango labelling him “well-rounded” and “creative”, making him “majestic viewing”.

But the question still remains; how does he compare to the outgoing Kudus?

Let’s find out.

First and foremost, worth stating up front that Sudakov was playing at a lower level last season, with Global Football Rankings believing that the Ukrainian Premier League to be the 51st strongest league in the world, albeit he did also impress at Champions League level.

Nevertheless, that caveat aside, Sudakov did score more goals and provide more assists than Kudus last season, posting more impressive underlying statistics too.

The Ghanian, for all his talent, was not very productive throughout the 2024/25 campaign, albeit he may point to West Ham’s general lack of attacking quality and cutting edge, which did not make his life easy.

Even so, should Sudakov swap Ukraine for the London Stadium, he could turn out to be even better than Kudus.