Teenage attacker Malcolm Ebiowei has visited West Ham United’s training ground and has posed with the club’s shirt, according to Football Insider.
The outlet claims that the Hammers have leapfrogged Premier League rivals Everton in the race to sign the 16-year-old, who is on trial in east London and has represented the team’s youth sides in recent weeks.
Ebiowei is at the club with a view to earning a contract, but no deal has been put before him yet. He was recently released by Arsenal in controversial circumstances.
However, Manuel Pellegrini’s side are said to be willing to overlook any character issues if they are convinced by his prodigious potential.
OPINION
West Ham seem determined to bring in the best young talent available these days, which is a good thing, obviously. They brought in Mipo Odubeko recently after he left Manchester United, and now they seem poised to swoop for Ebiowei. Those two youngsters may both be fantastically gifted young strikers, but they seem to have very different personalities. Whereas Odubeko left United because he wanted a more assured path to first team football, Ebiowei has seemingly left the Gunners under a cloud after a disagreement with some academy coaches. Is that the sort of player the Hammers really want to be signing? Apparently so. Perhaps they feel they can get him to knuckle down and fulfil his potential at the London Stadium and, heck, they could be right. This could prove to be a masterstroke of a signing. There are definite risks, though, and you just wonder whether this is one really worth pursuing with such gusto.
