OPINION
West Ham must swiftly end their reported pursuit of Tottenham midfielder Victor Wanyama as it is an expensive gamble destined to fail.
According to the Daily Mail, the Hammers are discussing whether to make a move for the midfield enforcer in January but they should decide against it and chase someone else instead.
While the newspaper claim that Spurs want to cash-in on Wanyama, they will still want a respectable amount of money for the 27-year-old who is still contracted to them until 2021.
Also the enforcer does have quite a lucrative salary at Spurs as it stands, he earns £70,000-a-week (Source: Silly Season), and given that the Mail believe he doesn’t want to leave, it would be very bizarre if he was willing to take a pay cut to manufacture a move.
This means Wanyama would be a very expensive player to attempt to sign especially when you consider how big a gamble he is due to his injury record.
The 27-year-old’s Spurs career is only in jeopardy due to numerous injury problems he has suffered from in recent season.
Wanyama missed 26 games of the 2017/18 campaign (Source: Transfermarkt) due to a knee injury and his knees have continued to see him miss a notable amount of action this season as well.
Given that the Hammers should be aware of what a mistake signing high-profile names with dodgy injury records can be, look at the current situation regarding Jack Wilshere or Andy Carroll’s career at the club, Wanyama looks destined to fail if the Hammers recruit him.
The London club for whatever reason seem to have bad luck with injuries and given the most likely reason they’d consider a move for Wanyama is to combat their current midfield injury crisis, it’s not going to end happy for them even if they recruit the 27-year-old.
Therefore if the Hammers really want another defensive midfielder added in January then they should pursue someone other than Waynama as it’s a risk not worth taking.
