Report makes one big omission as three West Ham players ‘named’ for January exit

Few surprises with one of the names on the list: West Ham United have been trying to solve their Edson Alvarez problem since Graham Potter loaned him out to Fenerbahce last year.

Alvarez was supposed to be the Declan Rice replacement – indeed bought with Rice money – but has never lived upto the potential Tim Steidten saw in El Machin when he whisked him to London on the private jet in 2023.

Right now, both the player and the club would take pretty much any permanent solution, West Ham probably reducing their price expectations weekly.

Yahoo sports claim Alvarez is the first of the trio who will be ‘exit bound’ in January. In addition, the suggestion is that Soungoutou Magassa and Venezuelan Keiber Lamadrid will be offloaded by West Ham in the January window. The sale of Magassa could inject another €15-20 million, if the club again need transfer funds, so there’s no real arguing with that: Lamadrid, on the other hand cost peanuts in the summer presumably because someone saw something in the winger: Ditching him after just six months seems ultra-short sighted.

Don’t bank against Alphonse Areola being offloaded for bargain basement money: The Hammers are still paying Areola £240,000 a month and the rumours just won’t go away that he’s fallen out with Nuno.

The longer the French shot stopper goes without putting in an appearance, the more likely, surely, that West Ham will grab whatever they can for him, with his contract expiring in the summer. Areola, on the other hand, could yet prove quite content to sit, Danny Ingls-like, and run down the last year of his lucrative deal and then leave for free in the summer.

The battle lines are already drawn for an intriguing winter window, it would seem, before the Hammers have even worked out their own incoming targets.