West Ham's David Moyes condemns remarks on African players transfer

West Ham United manager David Moyes has slammed Tony Henry’s comments about the club transfer policy regarding African players as 'wrong'.

Henry, West Ham head of recruitment, made alleged comments in a report by the DailyMail that the club were not interested in adding African players to their squad because they 'cause mayhem'. And he has been consequently sacked for his discriminating remarks.

However, Moyes revealed that the Hammers were in talks to sign two African players during the January transfer window and that the club operate an open transfer policy.

“Well, the comments are wrong. We were signing two players from Africa on deadline day so I can only say they’re wrong," Moyes told club website.

"I don't think any Premier League club has more African players than West Ham and we tried to sign two on deadline day. We have a multicultural squad and we always try to sign the best players available.

“Of course we have an open transfer policy. You can see the players the club have signed over the years. We sign good, quality players, the best players we can get, and it doesn’t matter where they are from to me, at all.

“Never, ever, in all my time in football have I ever had [a prejudiced transfer policy], at all.”

The former Everton and Sunderland boss recalled his relationship with African stars in his former clubs and even his visit to Nigeria for Joseph Yobo testimonial game in 2016.

"My first signing at Everton was Joseph Yobo. I went to his Testimonial in Nigeria last year and it was really good,” he continued.

“I signed Steven Pienaar three times and we brought in Yakubu, who was a great boy. I brought in Ndong and Mbodji last year at Sunderland.”

With Senegal international Cheikhou Kouyate’s reacting to the row on social media, the former Manchester United manager remains optimistic that the controversy will not have an effect on his team's morale as they prepare for their Premier League tie against Brighton and Hove Albion.

“I spoke with one or two of the African players and they seem fine,” he added.

“They’ve trained well over the last couple of days and morale in the camp is good because we’re on the back of a pretty good run where the players are doing really well, so we want to keep it going.”