West Ham United manager Manuel Pellegrini would likely be willing to sell veteran defender Angelo Ogbonna, according to ExWHUemployee.
The reliable Hammers insider has claimed that the Chilean would be open to moving on the 31-year-old this summer, despite the club looking to sign another centre back because of a lack of depth at the position.
“Yeah I think he’d take an offer,” he said on The West Ham Way podcast [56:15]. “I think he’d take an offer for Ogbonna if it was within certain expectations and price.
“He’s getting on a bit, as well, I think he’s into his thirties.”
OPINION
This is a bit of a strange one considering the lack of depth West Ham have at centre back and how badly the team has performed defensively this pre season. The only way you’d seemingly see Ogbonna moved on is if the club can find someone better than him to come in and back up first choice duo Fabian Balbuena and Issa Diop. However, at this stage of the window and given the measly transfer budget the Hammers seemingly have left, it’s unlikely that that will happen. We all know the Italian isn’t a rock solid centre half, and his pre season performances have been concerning. But he’s a solid, experienced centre half who got better as he received more game time last campaign. Winston Reid is still coming back from a really serious injury, and so he cannot truly be relied upon as the third centre back option. That leaves Ogbonna as a very important part of Pellegrini’s plans, and so it would be a major surprise if he was sold over the next week or so.
