West Ham United now ‘open-minded’ to let Craig Dawson make future decision
West Ham United are now open to letting central defender Craig Dawson make a decision regarding his future by himself, according to Dean Jones.
The 32-year-old has recently returned to David Moyes’ side after a lengthy spell out of action through injury at the start of the 2022-23 campaign and he scored his first goal of the season away at Silkeborg in the Europa Conference League.
But he and his family are angling for a move closer to home in the Midlands which very nearly saw him leave the London Stadium in the final days of the summer transfer window.
He decided to stay put until at least January but Jones, formerly of Eurosport, now believes that the Hammers have softened to the idea of him making his own mind up ahead of the next transfer window.
To be honest, he deserves the respect to take time over this decision and what he wants to do next,” he said to Give Me Sport. “From everything I’ve heard, West Ham are very open-minded about that.”
Person over player
Football clubs can often get caught up in their own bubble of a world where they only ever see someone as a player rather than a human being but that always comes back to bite them.
So it is refreshing to see West Ham are acutely aware of Dawson’s feelings and desire to go back and play nearer to his typical home in the Midlands after a good few years in the capital.
Moyes might be within his rights to ask if he can last the season with players harder to come by in January, as he found out last season, but ultimately if he is adamant that leaving Rush Green is the answer then the Irons have to let it happen.
By that time, they will hope to have Nayef Aguerd back to full fitness and with Kurt Zouma, Thilo Kehrer and Angelo Ogbonna in the squad, they should have enough to cope without Dawson.
If another injury crisis hits at the back, then Ben Johnson has proven he can play centre-half briefly and Declan Rice should be capable of it too but they can’t hold Dawson in captivity any longer if he is very unhappy.