Everton are doing West Ham a massive favour by signing David Moyes target Dwight McNeil and the Hammers won’t be losing any sleep over it.
After Jesse Lingard chose to sign for Nottingham Forest, Moyes was reportedly considering signing relegated Burnley star McNeil this summer.
Sky Sports published a report stating Moyes could be close to bringing the attacker to West Ham with a fee of around £15m mooted.
But former Hammers academy graduate turned Everton boss Frank Lampard swooped yesterday to steal a march on the likes of West Ham and other interested clubs.
According to the likes of Sky Sports and Fabrizio Romano, Everton are in advanced discussions with Burnley over the transfer of McNeil for an undisclosed fee.
The 22-year-old is having a medical at Everton’s Finch Farm base and the deal for the alleged West Ham target is likely to be completed in the next 24 hours.
But Everton are doing West Ham a massive favour by signing Moyes target McNeil and the Hammers won’t be losing any sleep over it.
Because while McNeil does possess a lovely left foot, the harsh reality is that the man Everton are about to sign is a playmaker with zero goals and just one assist in 38 games last season.
West Ham are in the running to sign a completely different calibre of player on the left hand side with Eintracht Frankfurt star Filip Kostic firmly in Moyes’ sights.
Serbian international Kostic is one of the leading assist makers in Europe’s top five leagues.
The Hammers are also being linked with left-sided attacker and Mexico international Hirving Lozano from Napoli.
Everton are a fantastic club going through a tough time financially so signing McNeil makes sense for the Toffees at this stage.
West Ham are on a different trajectory right now, though, and it is highly debatable whether Moyes ever truly was interested in the player as agents are notorious for using the Hammers to drum up interest in their clients.
In fairness to alleged West Ham target McNeil, Burnley were a particularly poor and turgid side last season.
But given he was one of, if not the, main attacking outlets for the Clarets – having just one goal involvement in 38 Premier League appearances – 35 of those being starts – is dismal (WhoScored).
Moyes stated in January he only wants to sign players who improve on what he already has.
Well for context, the much-criticised Said Benrahma got eight goals and six assists in 26 Premier League starts (WhoScored).
Even Hammers flop Nikola Vlasic matched McNeil’s goal contribution in just six Prem starts.
Playing in a better side – which Everton are – will undoubtedly see McNeil’s statistics improve.
But West Ham will not be losing any sleep over this one.