West Ham manager Sam Allardyce has revealed that he tried to bring in the Borussia Dortmund striker, Robert Lewandowski, when he was at Blackburn Rovers. The Polish international is regarded as one of the best strikers in Europe now. He has been linked with every major club like Bayern Munich, Chelsea, and Real Madrid. Due to the fact that he has just over 12 months left on his contract, he is widely expected to be sold in the summer rather than allowing him on a free transfer. He is expected to cost around £ 25 million, but that has not deterred the interested parties.
The striker recently managed to score four goals in the Champions league semi-final against Real Madrid. It went a long way into helping the team progress into the first Champions League final after a long time. Allardyce was the manager of Blackburn for two years from 2008 to 2010. He revealed that the club almost came close to signing Lewandowski only for the weather to play havoc in the signing. The 24-year-old was playing for Polish club Znicz Pruszkow at that time. However, the volcanic eruption in Iceland prevented Lewandowski from arriving in England to complete the transfer. He then signed for Lech Poznan before moving to Dortmund.
“Unfortunately he got delayed. We didn’t have a lot of money and he wanted to come. He was ready but after that he went to [Lech Posnan and then] Germany, which was a great shame for us and Blackburn. Obviously from his point of view his career has flourished from there, but that was one of those things you can’t stop. Tomasz Kuszczak, the Polish keeper who ended up at Manchester United. Our secretary let him go without signing his contract and the next day he’d signed for West Brom,” said Allardyce.