Julen Lopetegui drops major Niclas Fullkrug January transfer hint

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West Ham United boss Julen Lopetegui has dropped a big hint on the future of Niclas Fullkrug.

Julen Lopetegui brought Niclas Fullkrug to West Ham in the summer for around £27.5 million, after Tim Steidten led the charge to sign his countryman.

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The 31-year-old has seriously failed to impress at the London Stadium though.

West Ham are allegedly prepared to sell Fullkrug in January.

In fairness to the former Dortmund man, the Achilles injury he sustained back in September really didn’t help matters.

However, Fullkrug just looks like he isn’t built for Premier League football with his painful lack of pace.

I wouldn’t be surprised one little bit if he was sold this winter to help fund a move for a younger, quicker forward.

Now Lopetegui has had his say on the matter.

Julen Lopetegui drops major Niclas Fullkrug January transfer hint

The Germany international recently returned to action, but he’s been miles off the pace if we’re being honest.

So could he really be moved on so early into his Hammers career?

West Ham boss Lopetegui opened up on Fullkrug, when speaking to reporters on Thursday.

And the Spaniard dropped a big hint regarding the German’s future at the London Stadium, as quoted by WHUFC.com:

“Niclas is our player and is getting better step-by-step because he was out for a long time.“

“We have other options too, but he is one player ready to help us.“

It’s clear to see from those comments that Lopetegui wants to keep Fullkrug at the London Stadium.

And that’s quite a shock given the striker’s complete ineffectiveness for us this season.

However, if we lose our next two games, he will most likely be sacked anyway.

So Niclas Fullkrug’s future at West Ham is still far from certain, in spite of Julen Lopetegui’s comments.

I still firmly believe that he was the wrong man for us. The Hammers were crying out for explosive pace and an injection of youth in the centre-forward department in the summer.

Fullkrug was brought in though, and he has failed miserably so far.

That said, he’s still our player, and we should all support him. Hopefully he reaches his physical peak soon and ends up proving everyone wrong.