Exactly how many matches Tomas Soucek misses at the start of West Ham United’s Championship campaign remains to be seen, but it seems highly unlikely he’ll be taking to the pitch at Turf Moor next month.
Soucek’s injury ‘could have been much worse’, in the eyes of Pavel Nedved.
The general manager of the Czech national team – and one-time Ballon D’Or winner – feared a potential ACL rupture when West Ham United’s towering midfielder dropped to the turf in agony during a 3-0 World Cup defeat by co-hosts Mexico.
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Fortunately, while Soucek himself admits it could take ‘months’ before he is back to full fitness, he should still have a massive part to play in the club’s title tilt.
In a worst-case scenario, we calculate that Soucek could miss eight Championship games. In the meantime, reuniting Nuno Espirito Santo with Nottingham Forest’s James McAtee may go a long way to replacing the box-crashing void Soucek’s absence will create.
Nils Koppen reportedly wants West Ham United to sign James McAtee
According to Mail Sport, newly-appointed Director of Player Recruitment Nils Koppen is a big fan of James McAtee. Now, ideally, we would follow up these claims with some quotes from West Ham’s head coach.
Unfortunately, McAtee and Nuno would only spend three weeks together at the City Ground before the latter’s sacking in September 2025. Nuno is never the most outwardly effusive anyway, preferring to focus on the collective rather than individuals.
You certainly cannot accuse Pep Guardiola of keeping his cards close to his chest when talking about those he admires, though.
“He’s a special, talented player,” Guardiola said after McAtee rattled in a 19-minute hat-trick during Man City’s 8-0 obliteration of hometown club Salford a year and a half ago. “But he’s an exceptional guy and he has special talent.”
That ‘special talent’, as Guardiola puts it, is something the 23-year-old shares with Soucek.
After he became the highest scoring Czech footballer in Premier League history in the spring, Nuno spoke glowingly about Soucek and his ‘ability to find space and score’.
McAtee and Soucek have a lot of varying strengths and weaknesses. The former is five inches shorter than the latter, after all. Unsurprisingly, McAtee offers far less in the air but far more in possession. As you would expect of a midfielder who honed his talents under Guardiola, the Man City academy graduate is a fine technician. The kind of which West Ham do not currently possess.
Yet, after watching McAtee pop up inside the penalty area three times in just over a quarter of an hour, Guardiola rattled off a litany of compliments that could easily be copied and pasted next to Soucek’s name.
“When [McAtee] plays close to the opposition [penalty area], he has an incredible sense of the goal. His work ethic is unbelievable and he is aggressive.”
“Macca has this quality, he could’ve scored four goals,” Guardiola said a few months earlier, likening McAtee to Phil Foden after he beautifully rounded Dean Henderson to cap off a superb display in a 5-2 thrashing of Crystal Palace.
“Macca lives close to the box, quite similar to Phil and they are there. They have a sense [of where the goal is going to come from]. As much minutes he plays, he will score.”
Koppen wants McAtee! What should West Ham’s Soucek succession plan look like?
McAtee looks like a solid replacement…
McAtee tore the Championship apart with Sheffield United
Just to prove Pep’s point, in 370 Premier League minutes for City, McAtee hit the target six times. A goal every 61 minutes on average.
A tally of nine in the Championship during a loan spell with a promotion-winning Sheffield United side in 2022/23 is another good omen for a West Ham side with their sights firmly fixed on the title. As Daniel Kretinsky said in June, West Ham’s plan is to ‘secure an immediate return to the Premier League’.
The aforementioned Koppen is clearly on the same page as Kretinsky; he made the same point during his official unveiling on Saturday.
In the absence of Soucek, West Ham lack a midfielder who can be relied upon to dart into the box and convert crosses. Signing McAtee – who The Mail say is Koppen’s number one target in this position – would change that.
One suspects Forest may be willing to let him go, potentially on loan, after struggling to find a space for him post-Nuno.
During his two seasons at Brammal Lane, McAtee scored glorious curling effort during a 1-0 Sheffield United win over Brentford, in addition to a couple of rampaging counter-attacks finished off by the man himself. Clearly, shows McAtee’s talents are not merely limited to the 18-yard box.
“The way he moves, the guile on him, you can tell he’s been brought up the correct way, can’t we?,” former Man City defender Micah Richards said as the Match of the Day pundits rewatched McAtee’s Brentford stunner again and again.
“Always looking to get on the ball, lovely, two-footed… but his strike was exceptional.”
Nicknamed ‘the Salford Silva’ by some, likened to Phil Foden and Martin Odegaard by others, McAtee’s arrival would also ease any pressure West Ham feel to rush Soucek through his recovery. Thus, potentially avoiding a damaging, more long-term setback.
As for McAtee’s backflip celebration, we’d rather the 31-year-old limbs of Tomas Soucek do not deviate from that trademark helicopter spin…
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