West Ham United will sign Besiktas midfielder Gary Medel this summer after completing negotiations with the Turkish side, according to Super Haber.
The Turkish outlet claims that the Hammers have agreed to bring in the 118-cap Chile international, after Sky Sports reported in December that the club were interested in a January move for the former Cardiff City man.
The Istanbul outfit are in financial difficulty which would seem to necessitate Medel’s departure. Manuel Pellegrini has long been thought to be an admirer of the 31-year-old.
West Ham have seen their central midfield corps devastated by injury this campaign, with only Declan Rice, Mark Noble and Pedro Obiang regularly available.
OPINION
This is a story that just won’t go away, isn’t it? To be fair, Pellegrini does seem to be extremely keen on Medel. It’s hard to know quite why, in all honesty. He is extremely experienced and has played in the Premier League before, but he is in the final stages of his career and hasn’t looked his best in recent years. He is versatile, he can play at centre back as well, but surely there is a younger, better option the Hammers could be going for in central midfield. The club do need reinforcements in that position, of course, but again there must be better choices out there. This just seems like a repeat of the Carlos Sanchez signing from last summer, and we all know how that one worked out. The Colombian barely contributed before enduring a season-ending injury. To bring Medel in simply seems like a short term fix when the club could easily address this problem in both the present and future by signing a younger version of the Chilean. Still, it seems like Pellegrini has made his mind up.
