West Ham‘s midfield needs a revamp, and a surprising solution has emerged: selling James Ward-Prowse while capitalising on a potential gem – Youssouf Fofana.
Ward-Prowse was a consistent presence for the Hammers last season. But let’s be honest, his limitations in pace, power, and mobility were glaring. In today’s Premier League, these are essential midfield attributes, and his occasional deployment on the left wing only highlighted the mismatch.
New boss Julen Lopetegui inherits a midfield lacking bite, that being said, the new Hammers head coach might value JWP’s low risk passing game. He has a war chest of £90 million, not a lot, but a clever play could see him address this weakness and potentially turn a profit.
Here’s the plan: Sell Ward-Prowse. With his experience, a decent fee is achievable, especially with newly promoted teams in the market. Reports suggest £20 million is a realistic target.
Now, for the exciting part: Youssouf Fofana. West Ham have been tracking this 25-year-old Monaco powerhouse for a while, and here’s the good news – his price tag is a reported £13 million!
Fofana is everything Ward-Prowse isn’t – a box-to-box midfielder brimming with energy and strength. But he’s not just brawn; the Monaco website describes him as an “unreal” midfielder, hinting at technical quality too.
Imagine this: £20 million in from Ward-Prowse’s sale, £13 million out to land Fofana. That’s a potential £7 million profit while significantly upgrading the engine room!
Offloading Ward-Prowse, a player who doesn’t quite fit the mould, and bringing in Fofana, a perfect fit for the new system, is to me a no-brainer.
But will they do it?
Can’t see the reason for off loading a perfectly suitable player like JWP.
Moyes shoved players here there and everywhere whether they suited or not.
A necessity due to size of squad injuries/rotation.
We are already losing a significant amount of players.
Alvarez injury is unknown how serious it is which is probably another player who won’t be available when season starts.
Instead of selling players start buying some.
Tried to buy Youssouf Fofana last year as he was a favourite of Tim’s but Moyes battled against it.
We seem to be very good at loan/selling players but ultra slow and piss poor at buying.
Your last sentence seems a bit harsh bearing in mind that the new management team seem to be looking at different combinations that should allow players to be used as they should be and not ‘herded’ into a rigid defensive system as we have witnessed in recent years. we have just been given a Jalo and Steiden update for the first time ever and we are still not reached halfway thro the window. I cannot see selling WP will help us and to be fair playing to Moyes rules is a big handicap for an established player.
what is going on ! what really IS going on? you propose that ALVEREZ getting a serious injury could be a blessing in disguise! Now you start a campaign against WARD PROWSE proposing to offload him ( your word ) . clearly you are quite insensitive to everything that truly matters.
REAL STATISTICS show that W.P. was at the top the league for mileage covered in a game . he is
tactically astute by his assists . is a solid , dependable character ( hence being Southampton’s captain ) a master of dead ball situations, who else can score from a corner kick .
unfortunately the previous manager had little concept of how W.P. could work best for the team.
at a time when possible over half the team will leave , for whatever reason . don’t you think that it is pretty crass to start attacking a player who certainly does not deserve . solely for your own gratification.
Surely Fofana is more of a replacement for Soucek or Downes?
Selling JWP makes no sense, he’s home-grown, in his prime, contributes all over the pitch and offers versatility.
So now we have a ‘£90m war chest’? Weren’t we told on here the other day that we only had £60m? No one has a clue what we have to spend or who we are trying to sign
Fofana is a wet dream lmao. JWP needs to play in a free role to get the best out of him, But you are right he doesn’t seem to fit our mold, No worries as Soucek is of the Real Madrid LMFAO. your main take on this angle should have been the sale of Flynn Downes as it would have been around the same price range. Flynn Downes for Fofana is one heck of a deal and would safe a lot of backlash but I have noticed àll you get is negative Footballing comments on your reports but yet they still read it.
Simon, how is there a potential £7 million pound profit when we paid £30 million for him last year?. I see that as a £10 million pound loss. And as said by others his goals contribution and miles covered last season make him a better option over Fofana.
JWP got 19 goal contributions (7G/12A) in 52 matches last season.
Youssouf Fofana got 8 goal contributions (4G/4A) in 37 matches last season.
And JWP was doing it in an almost objectively better league AND he’s a homegrown player which is pretty crucial.
The fact you’re saying “the Monaco website describes him as an “unreal” midfielder, hinting at technical quality too.” hints that you don’t actually even know what Fofana’s like as a player. Basically “I heard from someone that’s he’s pretty skillful.”
Fofana IS a decent player but unless he’s signed first there’s no reason to consider offloading JWP as he was one of our most productive midfielders last season.
We keep talking about buy this player, buy that player, every time a players mentioned it’s to replace Ings, JWP, Antonio, Downes, I don’t disagree some of these need to go but to have a 25 man squad we need 8 HG players over 21, so to get rid of JWP with all the rest willing to be sold leaves us with Bowen & Cresswell, so we have to either sell and buy like for like or go with 19 man squad.
the chances of this happening….wait and see….zero….keep going Simon / Gonzo with the dribble you report…
Spot on!
What, another brain fart?
Ward Prowse has plenty of energy actually. He puts in more miles than many others. All over the pitch, pressing and harrying the opposition. One of the players we could rely on to put a shift in last season apart from the likes of Bowen and Souchek.