All singing from the same hymn sheet, it seems the Directors, Board, Coaching staff and Recruitment team all have the same aim: To keep the core of the West Ham squad together for next season.
The wisdom of that is for another day – were they that good, the squad probably wouldn’t have spent half the season in the relegation zone – but undoubtedly the Hammers need a ‘spine’ of their Premier League players if they are to mount a serious challenge in the Championship.
As was rumoured last month, it seems that Bayer Leverkusen have placed Konstantinos Mavropanos front and centre of their recruitment drive this summer, which will set alarm bells ringing at London Stadium as the Irons have already lost Mavropanos’ defensive partner Axel Disasi and want to jettison ‘want-away’ Jean Clair Todibo.
Ekrem Konur, reputed football transfer specialist with 250k followers, has confirmed on social media that the Bundesliga side want West Ham’s Hammer of the year:
Which, with the 50% salary reductions most of the West Ham squad have in their contracts, may well prove tempting for the Greek defender after three years at London Stadium.
Mavropanos came from VfBStuttgart and is widely respected in the German division. Problems ahead for Nuno’s team if they are to retain one of their key men for next season.
Do not sell Mavropanos. As a hammer of the year he represents and important symbol for West Ham. If needed adjust his salary to retain him. Getting anyone else near his quality, spirit and potential, would be very expensive (if any good player could even be tempted to join a championship team) and would have a learning curve ahead of him to get used both to Nuno and the team.
Question is does he want a transfer or will he give whu until January.
It’s almost imperative that he stays (with Disarsi).
Need to make transfer as difficult as possible_£50m pay up or more on.
Went from liability to indispensable. Again, if the player wants to go there’s only so much the club can do. Forcing them to stay never works.
I’m tempted to say let him keep his full wage. But then you’d have the whole squad demanding the same.
Well said