West Ham made it clear last week that their chosen direction is more toward the domestic than international market place in search of January targets. One I have been reading about currently on loan down in league ONE is at present attracting interest from other Premier League clubs including Spurs and Leicester City. The danger is, of course if recruiting from league one, that the player never manages the step up- more Jordan Hugill than Mikhail Antonio – both of whom hailed from lower leagues.
However following the ‘revelation’ from many news sites today that – surprise surprise, Christian Pulisic wasn’t interested in West Ham anyway, (can I say ‘told you so’ now?) – it merely underlines where the Hammers will need to drill if they are to unearth future talent – the Championship and lower leagues are a less risky hunting ground.
Of course the major boost is that when a PL club succeeds in bidding for a lower tier player, that club will be pushing at an open door with both the player eager to step up one or two leagues- and his club delighted at a transformative amount of money coming into their coffers.
How many deals were scuppered because West Ham ‘couldn’t agree personal terms’ – in other words ‘couldn’t convince the player to come’ to Stratford.
As a bonus there’d be no issues with players -ahem- ‘failing to settle’ in England. No problems with language, culture or relocation.
And as Spurs and Leicester are hoping to find out with their plans to bid £12,5 million for Stockport loanee Louie Barry, (remember the name, he’s an Aston Villa-owned striker currently getting experience in the third tier) they might just unearth a lump of coal that polishes into a diamond instead of an overpriced faux pearl.
