OPINION
Manuel Pellegrini should be packing West Ham midfielder Pedro Obiang’s bags after it was reported that Fiorentina had made a bid for him.
The Sun reported on Saturday that the Italian side had launched a bid to sign the Hammers midfielder, who earns £55,000-a-week on his current deal at the London Stadium (Source: Spotrac), with Villarreal and Besiktas also keen on him.
The newspaper state that the current Hammers boss is weighing up whether to cash in on Obiang and use the funds from his sale to further improve his current side in the transfer market.
It is clear that Pellegrini must swiftly decide to sell the 26-year-old central midfielder as he shouldn’t be part of the new manager’s bright vision for the club.
Obiang featured 27 times for the Hammers in the 2017/18 campaign and aside from spending the majority of the season in terrible form, he also had a woeful injury record.
With the midfielder bizarrely tied down to his contract until 2022 and his recent injuries plus performances taken into account, it should be an easy decision to cash in on him.
Who knows if Obiang will ever be able to stay fit enough to sparkle once again at the Hammers as even when he was medically cleared in his latest campaign he wasn’t exactly good.
The 26-year-old previously impressed for the Hammers after joining the club in 2015 but his value will take a huge hit if he continues his 2017/18 form into his upcoming campaign and there’s a real chance that could happen.
While Fiorentina’s bid isn’t know it’s probably higher than the £4.3million the Hammers originally paid for the midfielder in 2015, as reported by the Telegraph, so it’s likely they would be getting a decent return on their original investment.
Therefore Pellegrini must be packing Obiang’s bags before the Italian club and any other interested side in the midfielder change their mind about trying to sign him.
