West Ham United would have to convince Filip Kostic to sign – Jacob Steinberg
Eintracht Frankfurt wide player Filip Kostic would “take some convincing” to sign for West Ham United, according to Jacob Steinberg.
The Serbian, who can play both as a winger and a full-back on the left-hand side, had been the subject of a bid from the Hammers, as first reported by The Sun’s Jack Rosser, with Florian Plettenburg later revealing that the offer was in excess of £12.7million.
But the 29-year-old is not yet convinced that West Ham is the right destination for him having just won the Europa League with Frankfurt to qualify for the Champions League for the 2022-23 season.
Should Kostic decide not to join though, the Hammers have already identified a potential alternative in Leicester City’s Luke Thomas but there has been no approach to the Foxes for the Englishman yet.
Frankfurt manager Oliver Glasner described the Serbian as “outstanding” during last season so would prefer not to lose such an influential player [Bundesliga.com].
Intent
If Kostic does change his mind and come to the London Stadium, it would be a real sign of attacking intent to the rest of the Premier League.
The 29-year-old would much prefer to play as an out-and-out left winger where he could use his extremely good crossing ability to add assist after assist to his name but he has been used as a wing-back at Frankfurt most recently.
West Ham must have seen this and decided that he could drop even further back to a traditional left-back role in a back four and be perhaps the most attacking defender in the entire division.
Moyes is showing that he is not going to get scared of the calibre of the opposition or the mountain of games that come with European football and he is prepared to die by his sword of attack.
That fearlessness needs to spread throughout the dressing room for the Irons to go from on the edge of the top six to constant fixtures within it.