OPINION
West Ham have the right idea by chasing a proven Premier League goalkeeper but the reported pursuit of Stoke City’s Jack Butland sounds like a costly mistake is about to be made.
The position of shot-stopper at the London Stadium caused the club no end of issues in the 2017/18 campaign and if the right recruit doesn’t arrive this summer, it will continue to cause problems.
The Hammers appear to be looking to ensure that doesn’t happen as the Daily Mail claimed that Manuel Pellegrini’s team were exploring their options in the transfer market when it came to finding a new keeper.
However the newspaper also revealed that the club had made enquires about signing Butland and while the 6ft 4in tall (source: Transfermarkt) giant would tick a lot of boxes, his price tag should see the club avoid at all costs.
Spotrac state that the goalkeeper currently earns £35,000-a-week at Stoke and while his wages aren’t inflated, his price tag definitely is.
The Daily Mail’s report on Butland shared that Stoke want a British record fee in order to part company with his services, which means a fee above £30million, and that’s unreasonable.
The giant keeper could be the right choice for Pellegrini’s side to take, based on his potential, but after conceding 63 goals in 36 outings in his 2017/18 campaign, there’s no way he’ll be able to justify that sort of outlay in the near future.
With fantastic players like Ryan Fredericks, as reported by Claret and Hugh, and Javier Pastore, as claimed by Sky Sports journalist Kaveh Solhekol on his personal Twitter account, linked with summer moves to the Hammers, the pursuit of Butland brings the club crashing back down to earth.
Out of the two previous examples, one shows what talent you can get without spending big while the connection to Pastore shows the type of impressive talent big-money spends can get you.
Butland fails to tick either of those boxes and the reported pursuit of the £35,000-per-week giant’s services just looks like being a costly blunder that won’t bring the good times back to the London Stadium.
