OPINION
It seems to be a foregone conclusion that West Ham United manager Manuel Pellegrini will look to beef up his central midfield options this summer, but he’s going about it all wrong at the moment.
Turkish publication Sabah reported on Sunday that the Hammers are in the hunt for their former player Mohamed Diame, whose Newcastle contract is set to expire come the end of June.
Yes, the Chilean is probably only looking for a midfielder to back up Declan Rice, Mark Noble and Jack Wilshere, but is Diame really the best he can come up with?
The Senegal international, who has 79 appearances for West Ham, will be 32 years of age this summer. So he’s an ageing player whose best days are firmly behind him. Really, that’s the guy you want to bring in? Surely the club would be going backwards with this sort of signing.
It would be much better, surely, to pursue a young central midfielder who can come in and learn from the aforementioned trio. What is the point of bring in a veteran who is only going to play when Rice, Noble and Wilshere are unavailable? They wouldn’t be happy with that role, anyway.
This seems like a case of the Hammers scraping the barrel just to get another body in. Diame is still a decent Premier League midfielder, but is that going to be the case for long? It seems like a bit of a risk to get him in this summer when his legs are potentially gone.
So while the team are on the right track with a swoop for a central midfielder, Diame simply isn’t the man for an ambitious top flight side like West Ham.
