One of West Ham’s array of forgotten talent has already used this World Cup tournament to showcase both his return to full fitness and his dour defensive abilities, despite Graham Potter’s decision to discard him last August.
Fenerbahce may yet come to rue not taking up the option within Edson Alvarez‘ loan agreement: The Turkish title contenders didn’t see the best of the Mexican last season with his persistent ankle problems and decided to ‘pass’ on the reported €18 million condition within the West Ham loan which would have made his a permanent addition to the side.
Alvarez may be a valuable asset for West Ham’s Championship campaign
The Mexican captain announced his return to full fitness with a 90-minute defensive master class as his side overcame South Korea 1 – 0 to become the first nation through to the knock-out phase of the tournament. Alvarez himself captained his national side and played as a centre-back, rather than within the more familiar defensive midfield role in which he’s featured during his West Ham years.
Captain fantastic Alvarez celebrates his Mexico side qualifying for the knock-out phase
Indeed, one goal-line clearance was described as ‘acrobatic’ as the Mexican side triumphed to top the group and set up a potential last 16 encounter with England, should the draw pan out according to form.
Alvarez has given Nuno Espírito Santo something of a dilemma: The ‘exiled’ Hammer would be on most supporters’ “sell lists” this summer but the 28 year old has proven both full recovery from surgery and flexibility to do a job in a possible West Ham back line remodelled for the Championship.
With the certainty of Jean Clair Todibo’s summer departure following a public fall-out with Nuno, the Hammers will need to conjure up a centre back from somewhere and Alvarez may yet prove to be the defender hiding in plain sight who’d bolster both the backbone of the side and West Ham’s ‘leadership quotient’ ahead of a Championship campaign.
Other suitors may yet emerge for “El Machin’s” signature, depending on how far Mexico progress in the World Cup: But as an asset sitting on the club books at about £15 million, there’s unlikely to be a significant profit to be generated by selling him.
Another tricky decision awaits whoever finally sits down behind the ‘head of recruitment’ desk at London Stadium.
He did have kilman alongside him that day. Give him.a break
Generate a profit we paid 38 million if I’m not mistaken, selling for 15 million we might as well keep him we will have to pay that or more for another centre half so use him I’d say
£35 million in Aug 2023 so he’s had 3 out of 5 years of amortisation, meaning his current book value is somewhere between £14 and £15 mill.Hence he’s unlikely to generate a profit
He’s not got the pace to be a top centre back but certainly could be a useful guy to have around. But for me a big question mark over his attitude, only worth considering if he’s really up for it.
Absolute madness to let Alvarez go out on loan and consider selling (Especially for a loss).
Hopefully he can be convinced to remain at West Ham for a promotion season.
Alvarez always plays like that for his national team, doesn’t reproduce at club level plus I think the drop in wages might put him off.
Something that was so blindingly obvious was his transition from CM to a CB role. It was a role he’d played successfully previously at Ajax, yet overlooked by our succession of genius managers prior to Nuno’s arrival.
It remains a no brainer to me to retain him for his versatility.
He played CB against Chelsea when we got absolutely ripped apart by Chelsea under JLo.
Think we were 3-1 down in first 30 minutes but could easily have been by 5 goals. Games did end up 5-1.
On big wages, very slow and probably the right time to cash in as I’d prefer to see Kante / Potts play in the middle of the park.
He did have Kilman alongside him that day
Give him a break
With respect, our defence got torn to shreds by lesser teams than them under both Lopetegui and Potter and that was primarily without him at CB.
I wouldn’t necessarily judge him by that performance, he’s playing as captain of a decent international side at the very highest level and coping admirably.
I think in a long arduous campaign having the likes of a versatile Alvarez would be a huge benefit personally.