West Ham United can seal easy Djibril Sow transfer as £6.8m exit news emerges at Eintracht Frankfurt
Eintracht Frankfurt would be willing to sell West Ham United target Djibril Sow should an offer of around £6.8m arrive, handing them an easy run to secure a replacement for Declan Rice.
The Hammers have been identifying several targets to replace the outgoing Declan Rice, with Ajax’s Edson Alvarez, Fulham’s Joao Palhinha, Southampton’s James Ward-Prowse and Juventus’s Denis Zakaria all emerging as David Moyes’ top midfield targets this summer.
Swiss international Sow has also been linked with a move to East London with The Mirror previously sharing on 1 May that the Hammers were looking towards Sow, with head of recruitment Rob Newman watching the 26-year-old in action this season.
German journalist Christian Falk, writing in his CaughtOffside Substack column on 6 May also reported that West Ham United were chasing a transfer for the midfielder, who has been capped 36 times for the Swiss national team and won the Europa League with Frankfurt in 2022.
With the aforementioned defensive midfield targets all likely to cost a hefty windfall for the Hammers this summer, Eintracht Frankfurt have now certainly handed the East Londoners a cut-price opportunity to land one of their targets for the position.
According to German outlet Frankfurter Rundschau [7 July], Frankfurt would be willing to part ways with the Swiss international should an offer of around €8million [£6.8m] arrive on the table almost half of the £13m fee quoted by Falk in his column.
With the 26-year-old entering the last year of his contract, Frankfurt have no plans of losing him on a free transfer next year.
It’s also been reported that Sow, because of his cautious style of play, would not fit the profile of new coach Dino Toppmöller.
With the Irons losing Rice this summer in a big-money £100m-plus move, as well as Manuel Lanzini and possibly even Tomas Soucek, the Hammers should have more than enough in the bank to splash the cash on a quality and adept defensive midfield replacement for Rice, and the East Londoners have already got things going, seeking a loan deal for Juventus midfielder Denis Zakaria.
However, David Moyes may well be inclined to bring in another midfield profile and with the likes of Joao Palhinha and Ajax’s Alvarez likely to be very costly in the current market, Sow, dubbed as “intelligent” by Frankfurt sporting director Markus Krösche certainly represents an ideal, cheap and sensible fall-back option.
Sow is entering the final year of his contract in Germany and has gathered plenty of experience while playing for Frankfurt, so there would be far worse options to make a move for.
His style of play is similar to Rice, enjoying sitting deep in midfield but pushing forward for powerful runs and a strong passing game, and is further evidenced by the fact that he ranks in the top 26% in Europe’s top five leagues among his positional peers for progressive passes per 90, as well as the highest 33% for interceptions per 90, according to FBref.
With bit-part player Flynn Downes also attracting interest from elsewhere according to The Guardian (6 July), Moyes desperately needs further quality in midfield and Sow certainly represents a smart buy, but more crucially, a player who will instantly offer a steep upgrade on what Moyes already possess in Soucek and Downes.
In other West Ham news, one senior club figure is facing an uncertain future at the London Stadium following the appointment of Technical Director Tim Steidten.