Graham Potter has big decisions to make this January and one of those appears to be keeping Edson Alvarez at the club. West Ham have rejected an initial loan bid from AS Monaco for midfielder Edson Alvarez as Graham Potter looks to shape his squad for the second half of the Premier League campaign.
That’s according to transfer guru Fabrizio Romano, who took to social media platform X to provide the update on Sunday morning. Romano wrote: “EXCL: AS Monaco have submitted initial bid for Edson Alvarez, loan proposal has been rejected by West Ham. Talks continue as Monaco want Alvarez and can offer UCL football; but not easy as West Ham still consider the Mexican midfielder as important player.”
The 27-year-old arrived at the London Stadium from Ajax for £32 million in 2023 but only played a fringe part under Julen Lopetegui. The player has only completed 90 minutes in the Premier League on three occasions so far this term with competition in midfield from summer signings Guido Rodriguez and Carlos Soler.
Alvarez did start the 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa in Potter’s first match in charge on Friday evening, playing 85 minutes in that FA Cup tie.
AS Monaco bid for West Ham midfielder
Alvarez’s season so far at West Ham has been marred by red cards at detrimental times for the side. In the Carabao Cup defeat to Liverpool, the midfielder was sent off for a second yellow after 76 minutes with the score at 3-1 and the Hammers looking capable of a comeback.
Alvarez’s second yellow came for needlessly clattering into Mohammed Salah, who had already played the ball when contact was made. Speaking on Sky Sports, Jamie Carragher rightly slammed the midfielder for doing that.
He said: “West Ham are so close to getting a goal – and they probably deserve a goal in the second half. It’s a really stupid decision when you’re on a yellow card. There are two or three players around Mo Salah, it’s not on his own. It certainly wasn’t last-ditch. It takes the game away from West Ham now with them being down to 10 men.”
Edson Alvarez frustrates Julen Lopetegui
Come November, Alvarez saw red again against Nottingham Forest. Given his marching orders on the stroke of half time, it all but ended the Hammers’ chances of coming back from a 1-0 deficit.
The London side had been far from impressive in the game that far but still stood a chance of picking up points at the City Ground – Lucas Paqueta was just inches away from an equaliser moments before the red card. That dismissal left Lopetegui frustrated after the match and, even as he tried to hide his emotion, the anger was clear to hear.
He said: “We can and we have to do much better. You can prepare the team but the players have to take the right decisions and we have to play with eleven men. It’s one of the situations we can avoid because there was no danger of this. We had a lot of players in our box.
“It is a big advantage for the opponent above all because there is a lot of time in front of you. You are losing the match so it was a bad moment for us and a very good moment for them because they wanted to damage us on the counter-attack.”
