By George Overhill

8th Aug, 2022 | 6:10pm

West Ham United face heavy spend on PSG targets Thilo Kehrer and Abdou Diallo amid Issa Diop exit

West Ham are facing the need to spend big on defensive replacements for the departing Issa Diop, amid a defensive crisis, according to Foot Mercato.

The Hammers are after Paris Saint-Germain pair Thilo Kehrer and Abdou Diallo after finally agreeing to sell their French centre-back to Fulham [Dharmesh Sheth].

David Moyes’ defence has suddenly become a problem, as a preseason injury to key signing Nayef Aguerd has been added to by the fact that Angelo Ogbonna is not yet back to full fitness after his ACL surgery last year, and then Craig Dawson was also ruled out for the opener against Manchester City.

Sky Sports journalist Sheth has reported that the Irons have already held talks with the Ligue 1 champions over German international Kehrer, who is also being targeted by Sevilla.

But the Foot Mercato report states that despite the 25-year-old only having a year left on his PSG contract his wages are currently a problem.

On top of that, Diallo, who is also expected to leave the Parc des Princes, could cost as much as €25million [£21million] to sign, so with the Diop sale reported to be only be £13million plus add-ons, the club will have to shell out more than they had planned on him.

Expensive

Seeing as David Moyes has already spent £30million attempting to avoid the same issues as last season in central defence he is going to be pretty unhappy that he is now experiencing those issues straight away anyway, and that he is going to have to spend further to solve them.

Yes, the Diop sale will recoup some of the overall cost for Aguerd and whoever now comes in as cover, but if it is hefty wages with Kehrer or a hefty fee for Diallo it is another unwanted cost.

If it were simply to cover the injury to Aguerd then a loan signing would probably have been the preference, but unless they are willing to wait until the dying days of the transfer window that seems trickier.

They may have been able to do that with Conor Coady but he seems to be set for Everton where he can probably expect a greater role.

But at the London Stadium, Angelo Ogbonna is now 34 and coming off a major injury, and last-season’s iron man Craig Dawson is himself 32 and has now picked up a problem too.

Sooner or later there will be a need for a quality centre-back to be added who can be a top back-up and push the starters, so if the budget can stretch the pair of internationals in Paris could be good long term options depending on who Moyes prefers.

Diallo is 26 and has 17 caps for Senegal, while Kehrer is 25 and has 20 for Germany, and would both appear to be the kind of profile that West Ham should be looking at on the whole.