[ad_pod ]
West Ham United are trying to sell five players this summer, per ClaretandHugh.
What’s the word?
Manuel Pellegrini’s side have signed Pablo Fornals from Villarreal for a fee of £24m but the Irons are also hoping to trim their squad this summer.
The report claims that defenders Reece Oxford, Sam Byram and Martin Samuelsen, midfielder Pedro Obiang and striker Jordan Hugill are all on a list of players who are deemed expendable.
Indeed, Oxford was reportedly closing in on a move to Bundesliga side Augsburg, though that has collapsed.
ClaretandHugh claim that West Bromwich Albion, who recently appointed Slaven Bilic, could bid for Oxford, while Nottingham Forest are interested in Byram.
Roma, it is claimed, are also routinely linked with Obiang, though there is not much interest in either Samuelsen or Hugill.
Terrible youngsters
West Ham have roundly failed to bring in the best possible youngsters.
Oxford made his first-team breakthrough a few years ago but his career has stalled ever since and he has gone on to make just 17 first-team appearances. Byram, at the age of 25, has made 36, while Samuelsen and Hugill have made just five between them.
Obiang, of course, is a first-team player, but the quartet before him are the poster boys of a genuinely awful scouting system.
Fifty-eight appearances between the four shines a depressing light on their recruitment and the chickens are now coming home to roost, particularly as the Irons need to shift the deadwood this summer if they are to make any significant additions to the squad.
As it is, it looks as though it’ll be Fornals and perhaps a couple of budget deals, particularly if these five remain in east London.