OPINION
While incomings at West Ham may not be at the forefront of Manuel Pellegrini’s mind in January, he must definitely keep an eye on players who may leave.
One of those players is Pedro Obiang, who could be swooped for by Fulham if they fail to negotiate a loan deal with Newcastle United for their midfielder Jonjo Shelvey, according to the Sun.
Pellegrini must pull out all of the stops to prevent Obiang from leaving – even though he has not been a regular in the team recently, letting him go could prove to be one of the manager’s biggest mistakes this season.
With the midfield injury list having mounted up and Mark Noble not performing at his best, the need to keep the 26-year-old on the books is now stronger than it has ever been.
Obiang is a very capable player in his position, and he can be magnificent on one of his good days, so offloading him would be very costly indeed.
If the Equatorial Guinea international was to depart East London, the number of options that Pellegrini will have available to him in the central will be limited, particularly as Jack Wilshere is still sidelined.
His recent performance against Southampton was excellent, and he stepped up to the plate admirably after remaining out of the starting XI for quite a while.
Anyway, why on earth would Pellegrini want to sanction the exit of Obiang to one of West Ham’s Premier League rivals? We all know that offloading to rivals is a very bad move.
Whether the majority of Hammers fans will want to keep Obiang at their club remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure – his contribution will be invaluable at the moment.
Keeping him at the club is of the most paramount importance, and Pellegrini must ensure that happens.
