West Ham are this evening said to be ‘increasingly confident’ of a simply sensational double deal to bring pace and power to their midfield.
West Ham’s incoherent, scattergun approach to transfers is a thing of the past.
But for a fanbase fed on the relentless diet of transfer gossip that has gone hand-in-hand with that often chaotic approach over the last 20 years, David Moyes’ calm and considered new West Ham recruitment model can take some getting used to – and plenty of patience.
More often than not it has paid dividends and West Ham have reaped the rewards with a meteoric transformation into a genuine European outfit.
On the whole West Ham fans have been happy with the business so far in what Moyes had publicly declared would be a big rebuild this summer.
But the key work is still very much to be done after the signings of Nayef Aguerd, Alphonse Areola and Flynn Downes.
A striker, attacking midfielder, central midfielder and left-back are all still on West Ham’s transfer agenda.
And it is starting to become perfectly clear who the prime targets for each of those positions are.
There has been claim and counter claim about West Ham’s ongoing pursuit of Armando Broja, Gianluca Scamacca, Jesse Lingard, Amadou Onana and the likes of David Raum.
Now The Evening Standard has made a big new claim about two of those targets in a new report.
West Ham are said to be ‘increasingly confident’ of a simply sensational double deal to bring pace and power to their midfield with the arrivals of Lingard and Onana.
“Now, finalising a £30m deal for Chelsea striker Armando Broja is the number one priority,” The Evening Standard reports.
“While the club are increasingly confident that free agent Jesse Lingard and Lille midfielder Amadou Onana are headed for the London Stadium, too.”
West Ham fans have already seen what Lingard brings to their team after his sensational loan spell which elevated Moyes’ side to new levels in the second half of the 2020/21 season as the Hammers missed out on Champions League football by a single win.
Lingard has pure pace, quality, speed of thought and a directness West Ham have sorely lacked since.
And the lesser known Onana threatens to be one of the most dominant and powerful midfield forces in Europe.
Standing at a towering 6ft 5in, the 20-year-old is already a full Belgium international.
The higher-ups at the world’s second best international side believe so strongly in West Ham target Onana that they made sure to hand him his competitive debut – in central midfield at the tender age of 20 no less – in order to rubber stamp the Senegal born star’s international allegiance.
The report from The Evening Standard is seriously exciting.
Make no mistake Onana’s arrival would almost certainly mean Tomas Soucek is on his way.
But the prospect of Declan Rice forging one of the best young midfield partnerships in Europe – with Lingard at the tip – is a mouth-watering consolation.
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