OPINION
West Ham United manager Manuel Pellegrini has assembled a quality squad since he arrived in East London, but he’ll know that there is still room for improvement.
It’s no surprise, then, to see the club linked with one of the brightest up and coming talents in Europe. The Daily Express reported on Sunday that the Hammers were set to go head to head with Premier League rivals Newcastle United in a transfer tug of war for Mainz teenager Erkan Eyibil.
The 17-year-old has yet to make his first team debut but has already earned rave reviews in Germany and beyond. Likened to Arsenal star Mesut Ozil, he is exactly the sort of player West Ham should be looking at.
Recently Pellegrini’s team have struggled to put the ball in the back of the net from open play. A tidy playmaker like young Eyibil could help solve that problem in the future.
Obviously you couldn’t expect too much too soon from someone so tender in age, but Pellegrini has shown this season that he’s not afraid to give youth a chance if he feels they are ready. That could well be the case for Eyibil, too, if he were to make the switch to the London Stadium.
The German has one year left on his current contract, but doesn’t want to sign a new deal with Sandro Schwarz’s side. That means that he will likely be available this summer, with his club surely wanting to cash in on him rather than allow him to leave for nothing in a year’s time.
Newcastle will be stiff competition, particularly given the allure of a manager of Rafael Benitez’s quality, but West Ham should have the financial muscle to outgun the Tyneside outfit.
It’s not often that a club like West Ham, rather than one of the big boys, gets the chance to snare one of Europe’s finest up and coming talents. Pellegrini would likely get the whole club rocking by winning the race for the mercurial youngster.
