OPINION
West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini is reportedly planning to take striker Toni Martinez on his pre-season tour in July, but he is wasting his time and should be lining up a Championship loan right now.
Hammers insider website Claret and Hugh claims that the centre-forward is one of six young players that the new manager wants to assess during the summer before the 2018/19 campaign.
The 20-year-old Spaniard is in line to be included on the tour alongside Reece Oxford, Marcus Browne, Josh Pask, Nathan Holland and Martin Samuelson.
Pellegrini wants to monitor them all before potentially allowing any exits, but he should have enough people around him to say that Martinez stands no chance of making the first team in the near future.
Martinez is a highly-rated player that has been a prolific goalscorer for West Ham’s youth teams, but has just three senior appearances under his belt at the London Stadium.
He was given the opportunity out on loan with Spanish second-tier club Real Valladolid in the second half of the recent season and was unable to make a serious impact.
He managed just one goal in 11 appearances for them and the 6ft 1in (source: Transfermarkt) attacker is yet to show he is anywhere near Premier League level.
Pellegrini needs to shake-up his options in attack and that means trying to bring in proven goalscorer that can help them push for the European spots, while having Javier Hernandez and Marko Arnautovic already in the squad is a good start.
The best plan for Martinez would be to line him up with a loan to the Championship, where it would either make him or break him.
