By Joe Ellis

9th Nov, 2022 | 5:10pm

Bayer Leverkusen ready to sell trio as talks underway to sign West Ham United right-back Vladimir Coufal

West Ham United could lose defender Vladimir Coufal to Bayer Leverkusen with the German side ready to sell players to fund a move, according to Florian Plettenberg.

The Czech Republic international had been a shoo-in to start most Premier League games for the Irons but the 30-year-old is now struggling to get minutes under David Moyes.

Leverkusen representatives now plan to fly to London to discuss a potential deal to sign Coufal in January and they are willing to sell three players to make it happen.

“Leverkusen is highly interested in the 30-year-old right back from West Ham,” the Sky Germany journalist said via his personal Twitter account.

“Talks took place. A delegation from Bayer plans to fly to London in the next days. (Timothy) Fosu-Mensah, (Daley) Sinkgraven & (Charles) Aranguiz can leave the club.”

Let him go

Ever since he joined the club, Coufal has been a very solid performer but this season has not been quite so impressive from him and now his future is in the balance.

Thilo Kehrer has turned up as a centre-half initially and now become the club’s leading right-back while Ben Johnson is the closest to up-rooting him at this moment in time.

The Czech man has now fallen too far down the pecking order to warrant spending the amount of cash the club are on wages to keep him around much longer.

If Leverkusen are willing to clear the decks in order to go and sign him then West Ham should be more than happy to accept a reasonable bid from them.

They could even, if they are feeling cheeky, try to get one of the German side’s better players in return if they aren’t willing to part with the amount of money required to sign him.