OPINION
West Ham must resist the temptation of rescuing attacking midfielder Joao Mario from his Inter Milan nightmare despite pursuing his services in the summer.
According to Football.London, the 25-year-old playmaker has been frozen out at the Italian giants and has been left out of their 21-man Champions League squad.
Mario is also yet to feature at all for Inter Milan this season and has been rooted to the bench in two of their three leagues games of the 2018/19 campaign.
The creative maestro is clearly in need of rescuing as it’s unlikely that his situation is going to get any better in the near future as according to Football.London’s report his current side did try to permanently bin him this summer.
The Hammers did try to take advance of Inter Milan’s desire to get rid of Mario this summer but the London club were only willing to negotiate a loan deal.
Trusted Hammers insider ExWHUemployee previously revealed during the summer window that the Hammers were trying to borrow the playmaker’s services but their approaches ultimately ended up being unsuccessful.
Club still negotiating a loan move for him if possible https://t.co/Rl26sy0eDj
— ExWHUEmployee (@ExWHUEmployee) July 25, 2018
It would have been a welcomed move if the Hammers were successful with their attempts to sign Mario as he would have bolstered Manuel Pellegrini’s option in midfield.
However the Hammers ultimately ended up recruiting other players in order to improve that area of their side.
Mario spent the second half of his 2017/18 campaign at the London Stadium, on loan from Inter Milan, and looked impressive at the tail end of his time with the club as he took him time to settle in.
The 25-year-old made a grand total of 14 appearances for the Hammers, scoring two goals and registering one assists, and looked capable of being a creative threat in the division if the season hadn’t come to a close.
Yet despite Mario having a strong case to present about why the Hammers should sign him, Pellegrini doesn’t need that type of player adding to his squad in January.
If the Hammers are going to dip their toe in the winter market than the priority most be fixing the leaky defence that has seemingly not got any better following the club’s big summer spend.
Mario is not a defensive-minded midfielder therefore given the players Pellegrini currently has to call upon, he must urge the Hammers to resist the temptation to offer their former player a lifeline.
