No return for Mario
(Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini remains keen to bring in a midfielder and striker before the summer window closes and is pressing for finds to complete his rebuild!
However, speculation that Joao Mario could be in his thoughts have been denied by Hammers insiders who have told Claretandhugh that a defensive midfielder is required rather than another ‘creative’ operator.
The Hammers are spent up after their summer buying and should Pellegrini want two more permanent signings rather than loans it will see Sullivan and Gold having to dig into personal funds to complete the squad additions.
However, they won’t spend for the sake of it and have identified several options in both positions. With the manager not a fan of loan deals any arrivals look set to be permanent if the club can get who they want.
Should it prove impossible to clinch such deals it’s likely the squad will remain as it is with loans not being seen as the way forward.
I would agree that a defensive midfielder and a forward are needed. I think this young lad Quina has the potential to be a top 10 and could help to ease the burden on losing Lanzini this season as our creative player if given the opportunity and time in the first team. I also could see Arnie playing in the 10 role. It is also fundamentally important that we keep Antonio to compete with Anderson and Yarmenlenko. I have no idea who they are looking at both they both need to be quality signings, the players in the media seem to be the Celtic midfielder and the striker Marega but I do not know much about either.
We desperately need a defensive midfielder thats for sure.Kouyate looked as shambolic and lacklustre at Ipswich as he did all last season.Swap deal for Marega involving him could be good business plus Dendoncker to strengthen the midfield.
Not bad shouts, I really hope we do not sign this Gomez lad from Barcelona. He has failed to impress me every time I have seen him play.
Mario can operate as a semi defensive midfielder, we should go all in for the lad from Celtic, really we should have signed Seri, lets see what happens but losing him may prove similar to the missed opportunity with Kante, not sure what it is about our club that we miss out on talent identification, Kante was so obviously one of the most outstanding defensive midfield talents that I struggle to see how supposed experts couldn’t see it, likewise VanDijk at Celtic, you don’t need to be a genius, just look at what they do week in and week out.
Should say Seri is nowhere near the player Kante is but he looks very good.
We don’t know that we weren’t in for these players. Most decent players wouldn’t go near us last season or the season before if they had any ambition.