West Ham boss David Moyes wants to sign a £48m man from Premier League rivals for free but there’s a big problem.
Two months ago here at Hammers News we suggested West Ham should be banging Liverpool’s door down after reports claimed unhappy star Naby Keita had asked to leave Anfield.
West Ham and Liverpool have shared a few column inches when it comes to transfers over the last eight months.
It was well publicised in January that West Ham were trying hard to sign Darwin Nunez (Sky Sports). The move did not happen and and Liverpool pounced to sign Nunez this summer – and he duly scored the winner when the Reds welcomed West Ham to Anfield last week.
It was the second West Ham move Jurgen Klopp had hijacked after Liverpool snatched Luis Diaz from under Moyes’ nose in January with the Scot believing he had the Colombian all but signed.
Liverpool had been linked with Hammers ace Jarrod Bowen all summer until Mohamed Salah signed his new Liverpool deal. And West Ham are continually linked with a move for Alex Oxlade Chamberlain.
We made our suggestion of a move for Keita after Sky Sports Germany reporter Florian Plettenberg and Sky Sports claimed the midfielder wants to leave Liverpool and contract talks were off the table.
Moyes has shown interest in Keita as recently as January. According to Transfer Market Web and Football Fan Cast, West Ham wanted Keita in the winter window and it was believed they could get him for between £25-30m.
Now West Ham boss Moyes wants to sign the £48m man from their Premier League rivals for free but there’s a big problem.
According to the likes of MilanLive and Sempre Milan, Serie A giants AC Milan want Keita when his contract expires at the end of the season.
But the report stats West Ham and Newcastle are seriously interested.
However, there would be a big dilemma for Moyes to consider were he to push to bring Keita to the London Stadium from Liverpool.
Although Keita has managed 117 appearance since signing for the Reds from RB Leipzig in 2018 for a then club record fee, he has suffered no less than 17 injuries during his four years on Merseyside (transfermarkt).
Keita is currently out with the latest of those injuries, which saw him miss the win over West Ham last week.
Of course the Guinea international may well have simply been unlucky. And at 27 he should still have some of his best years ahead of him.
West Ham do need another central midfielder with the medium to long-term futures of Tomas Soucek, Declan Rice and Manuel Lanzini all uncertain.
Getting Keita on a free seems like a no-brainer. But he would obviously arrive on big wages and so Moyes must give due consideration to his injury history – as he tends to do with any new signings.
There’s no doubt when fit West Ham would be getting the kind of top quality, dynamic midfielder they need.
But there is also likely to be a host of clubs also willing to take a chance on Keita when the summer rolls around.
And foreign clubs – like Milan – would have the jump on Moyes as they would be able to sign a pre-contract agreement with Keita from January.