Brentford have signed the Senegal defender El Hadji Malick Diouf from West Ham for £40m.
It is a large fee by Brentford’s standards and a straightforward one by the league’s. The club’s recruitment has for years been built on buying before a player’s price reflects what he is; this is the other kind of signing, the one you make when the squad needs the certainty more than it needs the margin.
Elsewhere on deadline week
Manchester United signed the Swedish winger Jusu Bah for £400,000 — a fee small enough to be a rounding error against the Diouf deal, and a reminder that most of a transfer window is not conducted at these numbers.
Aston Villa are losing Ollie Watkins, who departs as the club’s record Premier League goalscorer. Unai Emery said Watkins had apologised for refusing to play.
At Crystal Palace, a move for Ordonez was in doubt after a medical.
