West Ham United agree personal terms to sign Thilo Kehrer with new signing close – Fabrizio Romano
West Ham are closing in on a deal to sign Paris Saint-Germain centre-back Thilo Kehrer after personal terms were agreed with the Germany international, according to Fabrizio Romano.
The Guardian journalist reported via his personal Twitter account on Tuesday (16 August) that Sevilla were also keen on signing the 25-year-old but they are now focused on signing Tanguy Nianzou from Bayern Munich.
It is understood that Kehrer preferred West Ham over Sevilla away and after a meeting on Monday (15 August), the Irons have agreed terms with the former Schalke player.
Good news
Signing Kehrer is a great piece of business by West Ham.
He’s a Germany international who’s won multiple titles at PSG, where he’s been a regular over the last few years.
Kehrer did drop down the pecking order a bit last season but still played 34 times in all competitions for the Ligue 1 champions, featuring in the Champions League and making 16 league starts.
Kehrer is versatile and that should help West Ham a lot as David Moyes always seems to have injury issues in his back-line.
The ex-Schalke defender played as a centre-back, right-back and left-back last season for PSG – he even scored in two matches in a row while playing as a right-back against Lyon and Stade Brestois in January.
Ben Johnson has had to start the first two games of the Premier League season at centre-back alongside Kurt Zouma and he’s very clearly struggled.
We do feel sorry for him though as he’s been forced to play out of position due to injuries to Craig Dawson, Angelo Ogbonna and new signing Nayef Aguerd.
Issa Diop’s sale to Fulham was ill-timed but at least we’re signing an upgrade on him in Kehrer.