West Ham United are in talks to sign former Manchester United striker Mipo Odubeko, according to 90min.com.
The outlet claims that the 16-year-old is in negotiations over a move to the London Stadium, having left Old Trafford in the summer after rejecting a contract offer.
The Republic of Ireland Under-17 international scored 35 goals for the Red Devils in the 2018/19 season, but felt that his development was best served by leaving Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side.
United are still attempting to re-sign him, but West Ham are now in pole position to snare him. However, they still have to negotiate with Solskjaer’s team to sort out a compensation fee, even though Odubeko doesn’t play for them anymore.
OPINION
Well, this is an interesting one, isn’t it? Clearly Odubeko is a massive talent who scored a bucketload of goals for United last time out. However, he and his representatives obviously wanted to get away from the Old Trafford side, not a bad idea given the massive malaise surrounding them at this moment in time. It seems, then, that West Ham could be the ones who will profit from the youngster’s decision to leave United. However, they need to sort out some sort of payment plan with the Red Devils before they can nail Odubeko down. It’s always good to bring in top young talent, of course, and Manuel Pellegrini will likely have an eye on elevating a young man as talented as Odubeko to the first team within two or three year’s time. To be able to snare someone like that from a team that now appears to be a direct rival in the Premier League table for the Irons would be a big coup. Let’s hope that they can get the negotiations sorted with United, because this would be a nice feather in the Hammers’ cap.
