West Ham United have been heavily linked with a move for Newcastle United star Jonjo Shelvey.
West Ham are short of options due to an injury crisis which has ripped through Manuel Pellegrini’s squad.
The Hammers have the worst injury list in the Premier League.
Despite missing eight first team players, many for the rest of the season, Pellegrini has West Ham in 10th place and just a couple of points off the European places.
With Jack Wilshere, Manuel Lanzini and Carlos Sanchez all injured the Hammers have been enquiring about Newcastle star Shelvey.
There was even a suggestion recently Andy Carroll could be offered up in a swap deal (The Express).
Two major sticking points revealed
Now a new report in The Daily Mail has shed light on the major sticking point in West Ham landing the boyhood Hammers who started out in the club’s academy.
“West Ham have already added Samir Nasri to their squad but to finance a move for Shelvey, they would need to offload players first.
“The club’s stance on Marko Arnuatovic, who was the subject of £36million bid to go the Chinese Super League, has cut off one source of potential income,” the report states.
“The other huge sticking point, however, is that Newcastle boss Rafa Benitez would not sanction the sale of a midfielder, whose value would be in the region of £20million, unless he was able to bring in a suitable replacement.”
Boyhood Hammer Shelvey has just what West Ham need
The report claims Pellegrini is a keen admirer of Shelvey.
Certainly he would bring some balance and vision to West Ham’s midfield.
At the moment Pellegrini has a mixture of creative and defensive midfielders. But none that can do a bit of both.
Shelvey does and it would be an attractive move given he comes from a family of West Ham fans.