Paul Merson sends James Ward-Prowse warning over West Ham transfer on Sky Sports
Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson warned James Ward-Prowse he will be “working on scraps” if he were to join West Ham from Southampton.
The England midfielder has been linked with a switch to the London Stadium from the Saints throughout the window and reportedly had a third bid worth £30million rejected on Wednesday (the Sun, 2 August).
Ward-Prowse played for Southampton as they defeated Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 in their Championship opener on Friday (4 August).
Merson, speaking on Sky Sports Soccer Saturday (5 August, 14:16), believes the 28-year-old may be as well off staying put.
“If I’m Ward-Prowse, you’re not gonna play for England you’re not playing for England anymore in my opinion, he didn’t play last year, I don’t think he gets in the team again, so does he go ‘you know what if everybody’s staying, I’ll stay’,” Merson said.
“You’re gonna go to West Ham, you’re talking about West Ham you’re not going to one of the top six. You go to West Ham you’re working on scraps. I mean you stay there, it’s a lovely season you’re winning every week everybody likes a winning team. I dropped down the league twice, Middlesbrough and Portsmouth, I loved it.”
Terrible advice
By this logic, are we meant to believe that any player featuring in the second tier should not take a move to the Premier League because it won’t be for a top-six side?
James Ward-Prowse is a very accomplished Premier League player and would certainly be an excellent addition to the ranks at the London Stadium, where not only would he be playing Premier League football next season but he will feature in the Europa League.
So, top-flight football, European football, and potentially a chance to work his way back into the England reckoning…remind us again what the negatives are here?
If anything, the drawbacks would be for West Ham with Southampton holding out for a reported £40million fee, a lot of money for West Ham to pay given the lack of resale potential.
Having said that, they do have £105m to spend from the sale of Declan Rice to Arsenal and Ward-Prowse would be a good addition to try and vill that sizeable void.
In other West Ham news, a £25.9million bid has been lodged for Ajax midfielder Edson Alvarez.