OPINION
West Ham must avoid signing Juventus midfielder Stuart Sturaro and instead hijack Premier League rivals Everton’s reported pursuit of Borussia Monchengladbach midfielder Denis Zakaria.
Sturaro’s agent claimed during a recent interview with JuveNews that his client did have the Hammers’ chasing his signature.
“In football everything can happen,” said Carlo Volpi, Sturaro’s agent.
“Because in fact there are a lot of offers.
“There are not only the big West Ham and Leicester, but at least four other 4 clubs interested in my client, who does not have a favourite destination, just wait for a decision by the Juventus club.”
While the 25-year-old midfield enforcer would be the tough-tackling presence the Hammers lack in their midfield, he has failed to impress in his recent seasons at the Italian giants.
In fact his progress as a player has significantly stalled and there is no guarantee that he will be able to get back to his best anytime soon.
TuttoSport previously claimed that the Hammers were willing to seal a deal worth £17.4million for his services and that’s a lot of money to pay for a player who might not deliver the goods.
However it’s clear that Pellegrini would benefit from a new defensive midfielder this summer and there are few better options to pursue then Zakaria.
The Daily Mirror reported on Tuesday that Toffees manager Marco Silva was keen on recruiting the player and that he had been scouting the 21-year-old.
The newspaper stated that Borussia Monchengladbach only paid £8million for their midfield enforcer a year ago and that suggests that a decent enough offer may convinced them to make quick profit on him.
Zakaria would be the ideal midfielder to make the Hammers’ midfield more defensively sound as not only is he a fantastic reader of the game, has great tackling ability but he is also comfortable on the ball and regularly sets his side on the attack.
All these attributes were proven by Zakaria during the 33 appearances he made for his side last season as he regularly submitted fantastic performances to aid their cause.
The 21-year-old also impressed in his brief appearances at the World Cup for Switzerland where he managed to register one assist despite only playing 49 minutes of football while it Russia.
Therefore the Hammers should forget about making a move for Sturaro and instead hijack the Toffees’ pursuit of Zakaria as he is clearly the better player to take a chance on this summer.
