Young England star on West Ham radar
West Ham have reportedly shown interest in acquiring the services of Leeds United’s Sam Greenwood.
The young attacker, currently on loan with Michael Carrick’s Middlesbrough. Greenwood has two-and-a-half years left on his contract at Elland Road. This season he has notched up four goals and two assists in 13 games across all competitions.
The England under-21 star is highly regarded, and West Ham are eager to secure the signing of the former Arsenal trainee. The Hammers aim to strengthen their squad with more homegrown players and Director of Football Tim Steidten has been tasked with finding them but it won’t be easy.
Aaron Cresswell, Ben Johnson, Conor Coventry, and Flynn Downes are all expected to depart from the club at the end of the season. As a result, a move for Greenwood would certainly make sense from a quota perspective.
Young England star Sam Greenwood pictured with former Hammer Michael Carrick
Given Greenwood’s career stage, regular playing time is essential. Reports suggest a potential permanent move to Middlesbrough could be in the cards as well, with a price as low as £2m suggested. Whether Michael Carrick’s side decides to sign the former Arsenal trainee permanently at the end of the season remains uncertain.
Greenwood may have the potential to evolve into a quality Premier League player in the near future. However, West Ham do have a number of talented attackers in our under 21 team who could be even better. Signing home grown players might seem like a good idea. But with talent such as George Earthy and Lewis Orford knocking on the door. It may be more prudent to promote from within.
It’s going to be a tough couple of windows if the rumours of FFP issues, lack of a striker and Home grown talent are so evident. It would be foolish to let Downes go given the rave reviews he is getting but letting go Ings, Johnson, Cresswell and Antonio who are all first team players, coupled with Coventry that’s a lot of Home grown places that need replacing. With the English tax that’s not going to be cheap and if clubs are being done for FFP as per Everton, even remotely going close could be very costly. And as for a striker why are we looking at a kid from Leeds who is hardly pulling up any trees when we have an attacking team of u21s who all seem to be scoring for fun. It can only be a case of promote from within and potentially off load a foreign player (Possibly Fornals) to free up a place for a striker, although where the cash for that is coming is anyone’s guess, as much as I love Fornals his sale won’t raise decent striker money and what self respecting decent striker will come to us given Moyes History for leaving them high and dry with no service and then moving them on at a huge loss.