OPINION
West Ham must hijack the reported hunt for Colombian attacking midfielder Juan Quintero after he dazzled supporters at the World Cup with his performances.
The Daily Mirror previously reported that the 25-year-old had captured the attention of Wolves, Tottenham and Real Madrid with them all keen on welcoming the midfielder to their club.
The newspaper stated that Wolves were currently the most active in their pursuit of Quintero as super agent Jorge Mendes was working hard behind the scenes to get a deal done for the club.
However the Hammers must look to derail his attempts to get Quintero for Wolves as he would be a fantastic signing for Manuel Pellegrini to make this summer.
The 25-year-old borders on being a midfield magician as he has amazing dribbling skills that he seems able to bypass his opponents with ease and also capable of playing defence splitting passing in order to put his teammates through on goal.
The attacking midfielder showed both theses attributes at the World Cup in the four appearances he made, and ended up scoring one goal as well as registering two assists before his nation crashed out of the tournament courtesy of England.
Quintero isn’t just a World Cup wonder though as he has previously showcased this skills while on loan from FC Porto at River Plate in his latest campaign during the 17 appearances he has made for them.
According to the Daily Mirror’s Live Transfer Blog (Friday, 11:35) River Plate are set to pay £3.5million to sign him permanently from Porto before immediately seeking to make a profit on him by quickly selling him.
The Argentinian club’s president Rodolfo D’Onofrio shared that if someone did want to sign him then it would cost them £22million to do so.
“If someone wants to take him, they will have to pay 25 million euros (£22million),” said D’Onofrio, as quoted by FourFourTwo.
The Hammers are also no doubt keen to add another attacking midfielder to their squad due to Manuel Lanzini’s injury and based on the fact they’ve made a move for Sevilla attacking midfielder Franco Vazquez (Source: Marca).
Therefore Pellegrini must urge his side to hijack the reported race for Quintero as after dazzling at the World Cup and only potentially costing £22million then the club should sign him.
