West Ham’s summer window was full of chaos and upheaval. Club stalwarts Michail Antonio, Aaron Cresswell, and Vladimir Coufal all left, Mohamed Kudus made a shock move to Tottenham, and Nayef Aguerd departed for Marseille.

In came Callum Wilson, Kyle Walker-Peters, Mateus Fernandes, Soungoutou Magassa, and late signing Igor Julio from Brighton.

But the Hammers could have added another marquee name to that list — Chelsea’s Axel Disasi. Strongly linked with a deadline-day move to the London Stadium, the Frenchman ultimately turned it down.

Disasi explains his decision

Speaking to French outlet La Media Carre, Disasi admitted that emotional ties to former club AS Monaco swayed him.

“In the period between the approaches from Bournemouth and West Ham, Monaco arrived and that hit me emotionally,” he said. “I had three incredible years at Monaco. When they came in, all the memories came back. Monaco is home.”

The defender added: “I hoped that Chelsea would find a solution to allow me to leave on loan. I pushed until the last minute to go to Monaco.”

A decision that may backfire

While loyalty guided his decision, Disasi’s choice already looks costly.

At West Ham, he would almost certainly have been a starter under Graham Potter, especially given the Hammers’ defensive struggles early in the season.

Instead, he finds himself left out of Chelsea’s Premier League and Champions League squads, leaving him sidelined from meaningful football until at least January.

For a player once hailed as “brilliant” by Jamie Carragher, rejecting West Ham for an emotional pull back to Monaco may have been a move that hurts both his momentum and his career in the short term.