Frank McAvennie expects Issa Diop to stay at West Ham United after Manchester United speculation
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Frank McAvennie expects Issa Diop to stay at West Ham this summer, despite recent speculation linking him with a move to Manchester United.
Diop has largely been seen as the fourth-choice centre-back this season behind Craig Dawson, Kurt Zouma and Angelo Ogbonna.
This lack of game time has seen him linked with a €15m (£12.5m) move away, with Manchester United mooted as an interested party [Foot Mercato], but the former Hammers striker has questioned if he’d be ready for a move to that level.
“His contract isn’t up is it? I wouldn’t think that [he’d leave],” he told West Ham Zone.
“He’s doing alright for West Ham. Could he go to the top level? I don’t know if he’s ready.
“I don’t know for the heights that they’re going to want to reach, but at the moment he’s better than what they’ve got, that’s for sure.”
Diop was linked with a mega money move to Old Trafford back in 2019 before they signed Harry Maguire, but since then his development has stagnated.
He has struggled to reach the heights of those performances since and has fallen down the pecking order under David Moyes.
A January transfer was also touted but never materialised as the Hammers failed to sign anyone themselves. But with the summer transfer window expected to be busy, with a defender expected to join, he could be allowed to leave.
At just 25-years-old he has still got plenty of space and time to improve and grow as a player, but whether he’ll ever be good enough for the top level remains to be seen.
In other West Ham news, Tony Cottee lets slip that West Ham have ‘done a deal’ for summer transfer
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