West Ham Exit Clues Mount as Two Clubs Circle Midfielder

By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)

Interest in West Ham midfielder Soungoutou Magassa is growing, with Lyon and Marseille reportedly considering moves to take the Frenchman back to Ligue 1.

Get French Football News report that both French clubs have expressed an interest in the 22-year-old, who joined West Ham from Monaco last summer.

Ordinarily, I’d probably dismiss this as another transfer rumour. But there are starting to be one or two clues suggesting there could be something in this one.

Magassa Exit Clues Starting To Mount

I was expecting Magassa to have a really good season for West Ham in the Championship.

However, his pre-season has been disrupted by injury and, despite making a brief appearance in the Hammers’ final friendly against Magdeburg, he then disappeared from Nuno Espírito Santo’s squad for the 3-1 Carabao Cup victory over Portsmouth.

More intriguingly, Magassa hasn’t appeared in the West Ham training footage I’ve seen this week, just as speculation surrounding his future has started to increase.

Perhaps we’re putting two and two together and getting five.

However, Magassa has already been identified as one of the players who could leave West Ham this summer.

Claret & Hugh spoke to our top transfer source earlier this week and specifically asked about the futures of Taty Castellanos, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Magassa.

Our source was quite clear:

“Of Taty Castellanos, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Soungoutou Magassa, Magassa is by far the most likely to leave the London Stadium.”

Now we have interest from Lyon and Marseille emerging at exactly the same time as the midfielder appears to be on the fringes of Nuno’s plans.

None of that proves Magassa is definitely leaving.

But with our own source saying he’s the most likely of the three to depart, French clubs circling and Magassa seemingly absent from Nuno’s preparations for Burnley, the clues are certainly beginning to mount.