Three clubs want West Ham player but it’s great news all round. With the wholesale dismantling of the Lopetegui-Steidten version of ‘West Ham‘ likely to be completed over the summer, five first team players including Vlad Coufal, Michail Antonio, Lucas Fabianski and Aaron Cresswell – hit the end of their Hammers contracts and will need extensions or more likely transfer – market upgrades.
In addition, others currently out on loan such as Nayef Aguerd, Freddie Potts and George Earthy will need decisions taking about their future. One Hammer for whom the decision has already been taken, it would seem, has already been consigned to the ‘bit-part’ category and will be out of the door in the summer window.
In the January window just gone, few clubs were prepared to meet West Ham Chairman David Sullivan’s expectation of Guido Rodriguez’ ‘worth’, but it is much more likely he’ll be gone at any price in the summer.
The good news is that there are teams keen on taking the Argentine midfielder back to Spain when the season is over.
West Ham’s World Cup-winning free signing of last summer hasn’t settled in the Premier League and will become more and more of a peripheral squad member under Graham Potter – being behind Andy Irving in the queue for a starting place pretty much signals the end is nigh at West Ham.
The player is known to be unhappy having come to London and must be itching to get more game time, so a move away as soon as possible is likely a ‘win-win’.
Fortunately there are there clubs ‘wanting Rodriguez’ return to Spain’ according to fichajes.net : The stumbling block this winter window just closed was that Chairman David Sullivan wanted to recoup the millions in signing-on bonuses which even a ‘free’ player cost. In the summer window it will be more a case of reinforce at any cost.
According to the report “one of several LaLiga teams have set their sights on him, with Real Sociedad, Girona, and Villarreal as the main interested parties.”
All three of which, apparently, would be willing to fork out between 10-12 million euros. Which sounds like good business for West Ham. Another inglorious West Ham signing will be quietly edited out as Graham Potter moves onward and hopefully upward with a younger, fitter, more dynamic squad.
