The reports over the last week or so linking Club Brugge’s midfield dynamo Raphael Onyedika with a move to East London show no signs of abating. In fact various outlets describe Onyedika as West Hams top transfer priority in the summer window.
With so many areas for improvement it might be melodramatic to make Onyedika the #1 target, but along with a striker or two, a left back and a goalkeeper, the Nigerian may well be one of the most needed.
As caughtoffside.com put it when declaring last week:
“West Ham have agreed terms with Onyedika: His versatility allows him to operate as a defensive midfielder, central midfielder, or even as a center-back. The reason the Hammers are so interested in signing him is because of his versatility.”
The young, pacy, powerful midfielder represents all that could be good about buying a player ‘on an upward career trajectory’ but before he is too expensive for West Ham’s budget.
Indeed, an indication of the direction of travel in the ‘old versus new‘ see-saw methodology at West Ham.
Identified by head of new recruitment Kyle Macaulay, Onyedika represents a ‘new-era’ midfielder sourced and selected through his stats rather than the ‘old’ ways in which things were done at West Ham: The coming weeks will be fascinating to determine who is really pulling the strings within the recruitment at the club.
Many remain sceptical and expect David Sullivan to revert to his old ways and use his preferred agents to bring in new players – however there would have been little point in bringing in Macaulay, paying millions to Chelsea to land the data-driven analysis expert and then ignore him.
So it’ll be a litmus test to see if the Hammers are really moving forwards – should Onyedika arrive then West Ham will, indeed, appear to be working to a new strategy.
If however the backsliding takes place and the Hammers pull in another thirty-plus Premier League (or Championship) journeyman then it’ll be pretty clear who is calling the shots and that there’s been an other false dawn at Stratford.
I shall at least reserve judgement for a few weeks and see what transpires. There’s a long window ahead.