West Ham likely to be handed Dor Peretz blow
If West Ham had any hopes of signing midfielder Dor Peretz, they are likely to have been dashed as the Maccabi Tel Aviv ace has been spotted arriving in Italy to sign for Venezia.
Last month, Sport1 reported that the Hammers are monitoring the midfielder for this summer.
However, according to Sky Sports Italy journalist Gianluca Di Marzio’s recent tweet, he seems to be on his way to joining the Italian outfit.
Would’ve been a decent buy
Free transfers, even if they end up being flops, don’t really leave a sour taste in the mouth.
Midfield is a position that we are looking to strengthen and add to our depth. Peretz would’ve helped in solving that problem and been an understudy to Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek.
The 26-year-old, who has 20 caps for Israel, has spent his entire career on the books of the Tel Aviv club.
He felt that the time had come to challenge himself and he is all but set to seal a move to Venezia.
While Peretz boasts an impressive pass accuracy north of 85 per cent [WyScout], he lacks the positional discipline to be a full-time defensive midfielder.
Despite starting as the deepest of midfielders, he has the tendency to drift forward and often finds himself out of position failing to perform his defensive duties.
However, he does offer some thrust in the final third and could be converted into an attacking midfielder.
This past season he recorded some impressive numbers for Tel Aviv, scoring 10 goals and providing nine assists in 50 games.
Given how tight the funds are going to be this summer, it would’ve been nice to pick up a player of his calibre on a free transfer.
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