West Ham United are set to sign Celtic starlet Armstrong Okoflex imminently.
And former Hoops defender David Moyes could bring the highly-rated winger straight into contention for West Ham’s first team squad.
That’s according to West Ham insider ExWHUemployee speaking on the latest West Ham Way podcast (June 21st).
The 19-year-old Republic of Ireland youth international was snapped up from Arsenal by Celtic back in 2018.
The winger signed a three-year contract which is set to expire at the end of this month.
West Ham set to sign Celtic’s Okoflex imminently claims insider
And ExWHUemployee has revealed he will join West Ham where he could be in contention for a place in the first team squad.
“We have signed one player – I think he’s due to be announced soon – and the guy is called Armstrong Okoflex – which is a quality name,” Ex said on The West Ham Way podcast (June 21st).
“He plays for Celtic and is a former Arsenal youth player and he’s actually played a couple of times for Celtic.
“He was born in Dublin, started out in one of the country’s famous academies, St Kevin’s Boys, then Liam Brady spotted him for Arsenal and brought him over, then he joined Celtic on a three-year deal…
ExWHUemployee says Hoops talent could be in first team squad contention if he ‘kicks on’ at West Ham
“He’s already played a couple of times for Celtic so he’s got to have some calibre to have done that, so we’re going to be bringing him over…
“This winger, the Celtic lad, is meant to be potentially one for the first team as well, if he can kick on a little bit, so it’s interesting that we’ve done that.”
Celtic were excited by Okoflex’s potential and the player himself told the official Celtic website how Brendan Rodgers, then Hoops manager, informed him that he would get games if he showed he had the quality.
It took the imminent West Ham arrival two-and-a-half years after signing before he was given his Celtic debut.
That came after Covid regulations wiped out most of Celtic’s team after the club’s infamous training trip to Dubai.
Young winger showed flashes of quality at Celtic and could get game time during jam-packed Hammers season
Okoflex played 39 minutes across two games against Hibernian and Livingston at Celtic Park in January.
Despite showing some flashes of quality, he wasn’t given another opportunity by Neil Lennon or John Kennedy and now looks set to sign for West Ham.
Moyes has four clear priorities at West Ham this summer.
The first is to get Jesse Lingard signed permanently. And West Ham got a massive boost yesterday when the player finally spoke out on his future.
Another major priority for West Ham is to sign a striker while a new central midfielder and a centre-back – with James Tarkowski emerging as the prime target – are next on the list.
But with European football, young arrivals like Okoflex may well be given game time in certain games – such as the Carabao Cup – as West Ham’s schedule will be a lot more demanding than usual.