OPINION
West Ham need to tie down playmaker Manuel Lanzini to a new long-term contract as keeping the 25-year-old at the London Stadium for the foreseeable future is more important than welcoming new faces.
The Hammers want to ensure that Lanzini’s committment to the club is written on paper as Football.London stated that the London-based Premier League side have plans to discuss a new deal with the midfielder this summer.
However as the trusted news site’s report states with the dazzling talent off to the World Cup with Argentina and a holiday to take, it seems the club will have to wait until nearer the start of pre-season to make progress over a potential new contract for him.
It’s a disappointing scenario but it is one that can’t be helped and thankfully Lanzini’s current deal still has plenty of time left to run on it.
While the 25-year-old’s contract isn’t in desperate need of renewing, having the exciting playermaker publicly commit his future to the club is a key bit of business that needs to happen in this window.
As Claret & Hugh previously reported when sharing the club’s decision to get contract talks flying there have already been rumours that he was about to jump ship to Anfield and join Liverpool.
Distracting, unhelpful and quite frankly worrying suggestions that Lanzini is on his way to a club competing at the top of the table, who are also in European competitions, would all stop with a new contract.
The creative talent shone in the majority of the 29 appearances he made in the 2017/18 campaign, where he racked up five goals and nine assists, with him likely to only get better under new boss Manuel Pellegrini.
The illustrious manager’s playing style is likely to get even more out of Lanzini’s dazzling ability and this is why it’s wise to scare clubs off now by conclusively resolving his future sooner rather than later.
If the 25-year-old gets off to a flying start in his 2018/19 campaign, which is likely, then it won’t just be Liverpool sniffing around him by the time January arrives.
The last thing the Hammers need is to have a player, who is worthy of being the club’s centrepiece, having his head turned and trying to get out of the club as soon as he can.
Therefore the Hammers need to ensure that the ink on Lanzini’s new deal has dried by at least the time the transfer window closes as it’s an exciting bit of key business that needs to be done.
