Director of Football Mario Husillos is reported keen to bring in long time target Gary Medel to the club this summer.
Manuel Pellegrini is determined to sign a player who can cover for Declan Rice and knows that it will prove very difficult to offer regular football to a rising youngster.
As the regular No 1 in the defensive midfield position Declan is set to play whenever he is fit which reduces the options on players who would be ready to join under those circumstances.
But Medel is keen to leave Besiktas for the Premier League this summer and was a target for the manager in the winter window.
The 31 year old Chilean is well known to the Hammers boss and we understand that with a year left on his deal he could be available for as little as £4 million.
A Hammers insider told us on the phone: “There are other options but Medel remains a possibility for us.”
Next level signings aye?… we could of got him at Upton park
That’s an improvement is it , do me a favour because signings like Medel do not scream big club . It screams cheap and uninspiring , surely we can do better and the owners need to offer mote than the reported £30 million budget reported. Where does the money we earn go , think about it we only rent a stadium , no overheads . Ambition requires investment !
We need a midfield boss with the ball, if we could sign one and keep Dec we could end up with a midfield like Arsenals with Viera and Petit Dec forming the Petit side, maybe even try Diop alongside him, certainly has the pace and athleticism of Viera, needs to improve his passing and shooting.
This makes no sense, I hate to complain again but Gary Medel is another pointless target. We had a great midfield enforcer named Cheikhou Kouyate who the management decided to sell for £8 million and then bought in Sanchez and Wiltshire/wheelchair, which has seriously backfired. Cheikhou was very popular amongst West Ham fans I know and it made no sense to sell him, and Pelligrinni was dead lucky Declan Rice was able step up. We have had the “get them on loan ” deals that were hit and miss, Lanzini hit, Zaza missed, and now we are linked with players like Dzeko and Medel, who are both the wrong side of thirty and could very well end up like Sanchez, Carroll, Yarmolenko and Wiltshire, perma-injured. Maybe I am being pessimistic but until we start to walk the walk rather than talk the talk I will be I guess. Seb Phipps
it made sense cos there were lots of waves being made by him and his advisers