West Ham Zone speaking to Frank McAvennie

Wed 22 February 2023 18:10, UK

We’re delighted to welcome former West Ham United striker Frank McAvennie as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the London Stadium…

Michail Antonio is likely to leave West Ham United this summer with change expected at the London Stadium, according to Frank McAvennie.

Antonio was subject to interest from Everton and Wolves during the January transfer window after the arrivals of Gianluca Scamacca and Danny Ings in the last two transfer windows, but a deal never materialised with the Hammers battling against relegation.

But with the Jamaica international having just 12 months remaining on his contract once the season ends plus the option of another year (West Ham website) and being 33-years-old at that point, McAvennie expects him to move on.

“I think he’s [Paqueta] a wonderful player, but you need quality players around him as well,” he told West Ham Zone.

“Antonio is going to move on I think. So we’ll see. It’s going to be a summer of change. We’ll see what happens.”

Rebuild

West Ham spent a lot of money during the last two windows, adding nine senior players to their squad for around £180m, but their strongest team still contains a lot of players who were there beforehand.

The age of the squad is high and there is a rebuild needed, which means senior players like Antonio should be allowed to leave.

After spending big money on Scamacca he is clearly the new first-choice striker when everyone is fit, while Danny Ings was brought in and is a more reliable threat when it comes to scoring goals.

Antonio could potentially be shifted around positionally again, having played as a full-back and a winger during his career previously, but the likelihood is he’ll want to move on as the first-choice option as a striker somewhere.

The summer is likely to be busy with David Moyes’ future up in the air, Declan Rice likely to leave and question marks over the future of Tomas Soucek, Vladimir Coufal, Lukasz Fabianski and others.