A Hammers insider has lifted the lid on the truth behind new West Ham transfer claims but David Moyes must take action regardless.
If one player symbolises the decline in West Ham’s Premier League form over the last year it is Vladimir Coufal.
There are others who would give him a run for his money make no mistake about that.
But Coufal has gone from one of the best right-backs in the top flight to a shadow of his former self at West Ham.
The much-loved Czech could never be accused of not giving his all for the club.
So it left a bitter taste when he was abused online by a few brainless keyboard warriors recently.
The West Ham family rallied around him as they always do. But the man whose opinion matters most at the club, Moyes, is not selecting Coufal in his starting XI for the Premier League, casting his future into doubt.
Coufal’s contract is up at the end of the season but the Hammers have a two-year option on it.
But reports yesterday claimed Bayer Leverkusen are keen to sign Coufal in the January transfer window.
Sky Deutschland reported that Leverkusen boss Xabi Alonso wants to bring the 30-year-old West Ham man to Germany this winter.
Now an insider has lifted lid on the truth behind those new West Ham transfer claims but Moyes must take action regardless.
A senior source inside West Ham has told Claret and Hugh there is ‘nothing whatsoever’ in the claims and the Coufal transfer story has been ‘entirely denied’.
“We have heard nothing whatsoever from any club in Germany or anywhere else,” an ‘ever-reliable’ West Ham source told Claret and Hugh.
Regardless of the Coufal situation, though, Moyes simply must act on the right-back situation in January and should have done so in the summer.
Besides signing a new striker, the priority for West Ham in the summer should have been to sign young, pacy, modern fullbacks.
Emerson – as Hammers News suggested at the time – is a seriously poor, short-sighted signing that smacks of the West Ham of old.
Modern full-backs simply must be able to get up and support attacks and make a real difference by providing assists and helping the team score.
Both Coufal and Ben Johnson are proving they are not up to it hence Moyes having to use Thilo Kehrer there instead.
Johnson even admitted recently that he knows he has to improve in order to establish himself at West Ham.
Extending Coufal’s contract – after the club also activated 32-year-old Aaron Cresswell’s extension – would leave the Hammers with one of – if not the – oldest full backs in the top flight.
Meanwhile, the promising young right-back Harrison Ashby looks almost certain to leave having grown frustrated by his lack of opportunities under the manager.
Moyes has always insisted he wants to build the team around young, hungry players. And the full-back positions is where they are needed most yet he has failed miserably to address it.
Perhaps letting Coufal go, if clubs do show an interest, would give the West Ham boss the jolt he needs.
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