Manor Solomon left Tottenham Hotspur for West Ham United this month not because London Stadium offered the bigger name, but because it offered him something Spurs would not: a starting shirt. That, at least, is the account given by his father, Yossi Solomon, in an interview with ONE.
"West Ham see him as a significant player, that's what he wanted," Yossi said, describing his son's thinking at 27 as a footballer no longer content to be a squad option. "He arrived at a warm home, a big club."
The move is confirmed and done: West Ham completed the signing for a fee reported by Fabrizio Romano at £5 million fixed plus £2 million in add-ons, with Solomon putting pen to paper on a three-year deal that carries a club option through to June 2030. He will wear the No.10 shirt, primarily as a left winger, though he is comfortable off either flank or through the middle.
It is a peculiar moment for the move, since West Ham are no longer a Premier League club. The Hammers were relegated at the end of last season despite beating Leeds United on the final day, undone when Tottenham themselves avoided defeat against Everton to confirm West Ham's drop after 14 years in the top flight. Solomon now begins life in the Championship, West Ham's first second-tier campaign since 2011-12.
According to Yossi, that context does not worry the family. "We believe they will quickly return to the Premier League," he said, framing the Championship season as a stepping stone rather than a setback.
On why his son left Tottenham, where he had struggled for regular football since joining in 2023, Yossi was matter-of-fact rather than bitter. "He's in good shape, I think he could have stayed," he said, while acknowledging such decisions were never his son's to make. He added that the Spurs manager had been straightforward with Solomon, explaining he was not guaranteed a place in the starting eleven.
The father also reflected on the two stops that preceded Tottenham's exit door. Solomon's loan spell in Spain, at Villarreal, coincided with a hostile atmosphere around his Israeli identity — Jewish community groups in Spain publicly condemned chants directed at him during matches last season. "That wasn't a good decision from the start," Yossi said of the move.
Fiorentina, where Solomon also faced political backlash on arrival in Florence, left a warmer personal impression despite the noise, but Yossi said his son's priority was always elsewhere. "Manor's dream has always been England," he said. "That's the NBA of football."
For Solomon, West Ham now represents the chance to be a first-choice attacker in a league where he has already shown he can produce numbers — his loan year at Leeds in the Championship yielded ten goals and 13 assists in 2024-25, form that helped persuade the Hammers to move for him this summer as their third permanent signing of the window, following Joel Veltman and Keiber Lamadrid.
