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West Ham United must pay £40m for Manchester City full-back Oleksandr Zinchenko
West Ham United now know how much they will have to pay Manchester City for full-back Oleksandr Zinchenko this transfer window.
According to Claret and Hugh, the Irons will have to fork out £40million to prize the Ukrainian international away from the Etihad Stadium as he still has two years left on his current deal in Manchester.
The 25-year-old was thought to be delaying any talks or decisions on his future until his national side’s World Cup playoff was complete, which it was on Sunday (5 June) as they lost 1-0 to Wales in Cardiff.
Arsenal are also keen on signing Zinchenko this summer and their ability to promise Europa League football could be a factor but David Moyes has a plan.
He has mostly played as a left-back for City ever since joining but he plays in a midfield role for his country which he prefers and that is also where Moyes wants him to play if he makes the switch to the London Stadium.
Mr Versatile
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Every great team needs a player like Zinchenko who, while not overly outstanding, can do a decent job in whatever position he is asked to play and against any opposition.
Having someone like that in the squad just allows the manager to be a little more flexible with everybody else because he knows that he can throw Mr Versatile on and he will perform.
£40million might seem rather excessive to begin with but in a way, we’d be paying for a left-back, central midfielder and even an attacking midfielder who could also be a winger if it were to be required.
That’s essentially £10million per position but we don’t take up another three spots in the registered squad so we can still add more quality in other areas should we need to.
We’ve just lost one Ukrainian with Andriy Yarmolenko leaving the London Stadium on a free transfer so if Moyes wants to fill some kind of imaginary quota, then there is no better player to go after.
In other West Ham news, this 16-year-old defender has already scored for the Under-18s but he’s now put pen to paper on a scholarship with the Hammers.
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