AC Milan keeping tabs on West Ham United centre-back Issa Diop
West Ham United centre-back Issa Diop is on the radar of Serie A giants AC Milan, according to Italian journalist Salvatore Cantone.
The Pianeta Milan (a subsidiary of Gazzetta dello Sport) editor took to his Twitter account to claim that the San Siro outfit have been discussing the Frenchman in the past few weeks, having identified him as a potential target even if Alessio Romagnoli remains at the club.
Time to cash in?
Diop is a top talent without any iota of doubt, but he has struggled of recent at West Ham, falling out of favour under manager David Moyes last term.
The 24-year-old joined us from Toulouse for £22million [BBC] in the summer of 2018, and while he impressed in his first two seasons, making 65 Premier League appearances across both campaigns, he played just 18 times last term.
Craig Dawson and Angelo Ogbonna were ahead of him in the pecking order at the London Stadium last season, while the recently-departed
Fabian Balbuena played just four games lesser than him.
We believe Diop still has something to prove but there are no guarantees that he would come good.
He is at an age where he should be establishing himself as our first-choice centre-back, but it appears his development has not gone as planned.
West Ham need reinforcements at the back this summer, and should Milan table a juicy bid, they could be tempted to cash in on the former France youth international and buy reliable replacements.
We need top centre-backs to provide quality cover and competition for the ageing Dawson and Ogbonna next season, and Diop has struggled with that task within the last 12 months.
In other West Ham news, wealthy club want Hammers attacker as 2018 Pellegrini signing issues six-figure demand.
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