By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
The Star’s Danny Hall reported this week that our £85 million sale of Mateus Fernandes to Tottenham could have a knock-on effect all the way up in Sheffield.
The suggestion is that West Ham are back among the suitors for Blades midfielder Sydie Peck, with a Championship-sized war chest now sitting in the back pocket.
We’re told the club have kept tabs on the 21-year-old for some time, while Brentford and Nottingham Forest are also monitoring his progress.
So this is not a new name.
It’s one we were first linked with around a month ago.
What I Saw In Peck
I had a proper look at Peck when those first links surfaced and, I have to say, I liked what I saw.
He strikes me as the type of player who has a bit of everything.
Technically and physically, he looks the part, and that combination isn’t always a given at 21 years of age.
Personally, I can see him making an immediate impact in the Championship.
For me, though, the real attraction is his ceiling.
An England Under-21 international under contract until 2028 is exactly the profile of player who could still become a valuable Premier League asset once West Ham get back to the top flight.
West Ham Need Midfield Reinforcements
And make no mistake, the midfield needs work.
Fernandes has gone to Spurs, while Tomáš Souček is now facing something like three months on the sidelines.
So the logic behind the Peck link is sound.
West Ham have the funds, they have the vacancy, and he fits the profile of the sort of player a promotion-chasing side should be recruiting.
The One Doubt
But here’s where I hesitate.
The West Ham that fancied Peck a month ago isn’t quite the same West Ham of today.
Nils Koppen is arriving as recruitment director, and a new man with a new plan usually brings his own shortlist rather than inheriting somebody else’s.
So the interest may well have been genuine.
Whether it survives contact with Koppen’s clipboard is another question entirely.
Either way, Peck is exactly the sort of signing I’d rather see than an over-the-hill journeyman. And if it isn’t him, I just hope it’s somebody cut from the same cloth.