Anthony Onifade

Tue 11 July 2023 12:10, UK

West Ham United are interested in signing Manchester City defender Taylor Harwood-Bellis this summer, and new technical director Tim Steidten can now take advantage after learning of his £15m bargain price.

The highly-rated centre-back proved an absolute revelation on loan at Burnley under Vincent Kompany’s guidance last season forming the heart of their defence in their impressive race towards Premier League football, registering a goal and two assists from 32 Sky Bet Championship games.

The 21-year-old followed up that impressive Championship feat by captaining the England under-21s as they lifted the European Championship trophy after a hard-thought 1-0 victory over Spain on Saturday (8 July).

And the Citizen youngster is attracting a host of interest this summer as a result.

According to BBC Sport (10 July), West Ham United will have to pay £15m for Harwood-Bellis’ services this summer, with a “number of Premier League clubs” also interested.

Taking to his personal Twitter account on Monday evening (10 July) Daily Mail journalist Jack Gaughan wrote: “Taylor Harwood-Bellis has interest from Fulham and West Ham. Valued at around £15m by Man City with one year left on his contract.”

Following the appointment of Steidten as new West Ham United technical director, the German is certainly well-versed and decorated in acquiring attractive young names at bargain prices for clubs he’s worked before, most notably, at Bayer Leverkusen.

And the 44-year-old transfer chief can very well continue that stunning trend by signing a player now ready to take the Premier League by storm following his sensational progress over the past 12 months.

West Ham desperately need defensive reinforcements, having struggled with a huge number of injury problems last season, drastically causing their disappointing form in the Premier League.

Angelo Ogbonna, Kurt Zouma, Thilo Kehrer and Nayef Aguerd all endured periods on the treatment table last year, and it’s why the reports have emerged over the past month linking the Irons with the likes of Harwood-Bellis, Real Betis’ Luiz Felipe and AS Roma’s Roger Ibanez.

Harwood-Bellis is certainly an attractive proposition, given his incredible current ability and potential to grow even further. The 21-year-old is highly-regarded at the Etihad but his immediate future in Manchester is uncertain with his current contract due to expire next summer, and that has alerted a number of clubs to his situation.

An incredibly gifted centre-back possessing excellent qualities on the ball, aggressive and combative in his duel winning as well as being a very capable presence in the air, the 21-year-old possesses all the makings to become a high-level Premier League centre-back and a player the club should be fighting.

Harwood-Bellis, recently dubbed a “warrior” by Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray, was an absolute rock at the heart of Burnley’s backline this season and is strong on and off the ground, where he averaged 3.3 clearances and 3.1 aerial duel successes per league game, via WhoScored while also averaging 1.8 interceptions, 1.1 tackles per game and was only dribbled past on average 0.2 times per game.

He followed that up with some solid and mature performances at the Under-21 European Championships alongside Chelsea’s Levi Colwill once again showing why he is heavily regarded as one of the best young centre-backs in the country, averaging a phenomenal Sofascore rating of 7.26 and won an impressive 86% of his ground duels, while also boasting a 90% pass accuracy.

However, his most impressive and more complete attributes lie in his ball-progression ranking in the 99th percentile for the number of passes attempted and the 95th for progressive passes, as per FBref, so he’s more than comfortable playing out from the back and pushing his team up the pitch, which will be yet another extremely attractive attribute to David Moyes to evolve his style at the London Stadium.

At the price quoted he wouldn’t break the bank and can well be considered an absolute bargain for Steidten to pursue, and given the German’s class in the transfer window, the Hammers can be considered favourites in the race to sign one of the best young English talents around.

In other West Ham news, Gianluca Scamacca’s future is up in the air after a loan move was blocked.