Johnny Heitinga scraps move to West Ham

 
Standard Sport2 January 2014

John Heitinga pulled out of move to West Ham today after a late change of heart.

The 30-year-old was expected to undergo a medical with the Hammers but decided against it, claiming that a switch from Everton to Upton Park would not have been good for his career.

The news is a blow to Sam Allardyce, who is desperate for cover after losing all three of his central defenders — Winston Reid, James Collins and James Tomkins — through injury.

“At my age it’s important to make the right decisions,” he said in a statement. “Then it’s not all about the money, as that wasn’t a problem at West Ham. You have to be fully convinced that you will make the right step and I didn’t have that.

“Therefore I have cancelled [the move to] West Ham and we will now wait for the interest of other clubs. The interest is there already, so I am confident I will find another club before January 31. That’s the date the transfer window will close.”

Heitinga has found his chances at Everton limited since Roberto Martinez took charge in the summer and is anxious to move as he hopes to win a place in Holland’s World Cup squad. A report today suggested that Newcastle were lining up a move for him.

“I know that national coach Louis Van Gaal requires his selected players playing weekly,”added Heitinga, who is out of contract in the summer. “At the moment, that’s not the situation at Everton and therefore I am now looking for other options to get a successful continuation of my career.”

OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER was today appointed manager of Cardiff. His first League match will be at home to West Ham, a week on Saturday.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in