OPINION
West Ham have been handed a boost in the race to sign Harold Moukoudi as Burnley are not reportedly keen on signing the defender.
The Daily Mail reported on Wednesday that the Hammers and Burnley were pursuing the £9million-rated centre-back with the Clarets seemingly leading the race as they had made contact with Le Havre about their player having made an enquiry.
However according to Tyrone Marshall of the Lancashire Telegraph the Clarets have no interest in signing the 20-year-old enforcer this summer.
Understand there's no Burnley interest in Abdoulaye Toure or Harold Moukoudi #twitterclarets
— Tyrone Marshall (@TyMarshall_MEN) July 25, 2018
The trusted journalist shared the update via his personal Twitter account in order to reveal that it was actually unlikely that Burnley would end up signing Moukoudi this summer.
Given that Burnley were the only other team listed in the race for the centre-back, it seems the Hammers have been handed a boost in their quest to sign him as there is less competition then previously thought for his services.
Although according to the Mail’s report he was formerly targeted by Arsenal but there’s no word on whether they’re set to reignite their interest anytime soon.
Moukoudi would be a decent enforcer for Manuel Pellegrini to welcome to the London Stadium this summer as not only is his potential price tag reasonable, at the age of 20-years-old he is only going to get better.
The enforcer regularly stood out when featuring for Le Havre in Ligue 2 last season and even managed to score four goals in his 37 outings for them in order to aid their attack as well as help keep clean sheets in defence.
As Pellegrini is likely to be looking for a new centre-back in order to provide cover for the first-team rather than be a guaranteed starter given the options he currently has available to him, it makes sense to go for Moukoudi.
The 20-year-old looks like a promising talent and wouldn’t be expecting to be regularly featuring for the side as it would be a huge step up to play in the Premier League after featuring in France’s second-tier.
This means Moukoudi would benefit from being used sparingly and would no doubt learn a thing or two from observing the Hammers’ current centre-backs from the bench.
Therefore the Hammers should take advantage of the boost they have received from Burnley not being in the race for him and make their interest concrete in the near future.
