West Ham United have made an offer to Chelsea to sign their teenage winger Adrian Akande on a permanent basis, according to All Nigeria Soccer.
The outlet claims that the Hammers have made an attempt to seal a deal for the 15-year-old after he impressed while training with the club’s youth teams last month.
Heavyweight Premier League trio Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur are all also interested and have opened lines of communication with the player’s camp.
Meanwhile, Old Firm rivals Celtic and Rangers are both in for the teenager, while German outfit Hoffenheim have invited him to a training camp in Germany.
OPINION
This is an interesting one, isn’t it? Clearly Akande has made quite a name for himself and, at just 15 years of age, has got a whole host of big teams chasing after him. The problem for West Ham would be in convincing him to eschew all his other options and commit himself to them. The lure of teams like United and Liverpool will obviously be huge, while he seemingly has the more exotic option of going abroad to Germany with Hoffenheim. We’ve seen plenty of English players head to foreign fields in recent times, and Akande may feel he’ll get more opportunities in mainland Europe then he would in the Premier League. Ultimately he needs to take a long-term view of the situation and pick the club that is best going to help him in his career. It’s easy to argue that the Hammers, with their track record of promoting youth, are the right team for him, but this is a decision that he will need to make with his family and advisors.
