January transfer news: West Ham will have to pay more than £20 million for Antonin Barak in the January transfer window.
That’s according to a report from Gazzetta dello Sport (print edition January 6th, page 18).
It is suggested that West Ham could battle it out with Newcastle for the 27-year-old Hellas Verona ace’s signature this month.
Hammers boss David Moyes desperately needs to bolster his ranks at the London Stadium before the January window slams shut.
The additions of a top-class striker and a quality centre-back should be a prerequisite. Those two positions should be strengthened at the absolutely bare minimum.
It could be argued that we actually need to sign an elite left-back as well.
Perhaps one position where we are fairly well covered, however, is the attacking midfield/winger department. Moyes has Said Benrahma, Manuel Lanzini, Jarrod Bowen, Pablo Fornals, Nikola Vlasic, Andriy Yarmolenko and even Armstrong Okoflex to call upon.
Now, Benrahma is away at AFCON for at least the next month. But even so, we should be able to cope without him. He will only miss three Premier League games after all.
All of Moyes’s budget should be spent on a striker, a centre-back and perhaps a left-back this month.
January transfer news: West Ham need to walk away from £20m+ Barak
Considering the fact that Moyes has so many pressing priorities this month, we really shouldn’t be going anywhere near the 27-year-old Hellas Verona man.
Barak is international teammates with Hammers duo Vladimir Coufal and Tomas Soucek. He enjoyed a brief spell with Slavia Prague with his fellow countryman as well.
He is a decent player. The 27-year-old has bagged five goals and three assists in 16 games this season (Transfermarkt).
The issue we have with this is that not only do West Ham need to urgently strengthen in three positions aside from attacking midfield, but we could and should be doing a lot better than Barak as well.
If Moyes is to sign an attack-minded midfielder/winger this month, then Jesse Lingard has to be our number one target. If we can’t get a deal done for the 29-year-old then we need to bring in someone of similar quality.
And as harsh as this might sound, Barak just isn’t on Lingard’s level.
His asking price of £20 million or more means that now is the time for the Hammers to walk away…
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