West Ham United defender Angelo Ogbonna has emerged as a ‘top target’ for Spanish side Valencia, according to Goal.
The outlet claims that the Italy international is of primary interest to Marcelino’s side ahead of the winter transfer window in January.
The Champions League outfit are said to have already opened talks with the Hammers over a potential move, as they look to reignite their stuttering season.
The 30-year-old has fallen behind Fabian Balbuena and Issa Diop in the centre back pecking order at the London Stadium this season, and could seek a January exit as a result.
OPINION
Ogbonna has rarely featured for West Ham this campaign and now longer appears to be first choice in East London. Balbuena and Diop have shown that they are a dominant centre back duo and so it’s hard to see the Italian breaking back into the team on a regular basis. Valencia would certainly be a good move for him. He would be swapping the Hammers for a bigger club who are playing European football. They aren’t in the best of form of late but they will no doubt improve over the second half of the season. For West Ham, however, they should be looking to keep Ogbonna at the club unless they have a replacement for him lined up. You need good back up players in your squad and the former Juventus man is certainly that. Whenever he comes into the team he does a solid job and that’s not something you should throw away so easily. The team don’t have many available centre halves at the moment so the timing isn’t great for this deal. However, the player might want to leave in order to get regular football, so we’ll see what happens.
