No future for Pablo Fornals at West Ham, EFL Cup display confirms cash-in needed
Pablo Fornals will have hoped his future at the club was still in his hands following West Ham extending the player’s contract earlier this month.
Despite only two league starts under David Moyes this season, the 27-year-old was once a fan-favourite at the London Stadium having made one game short of two centuries of appearances since joining in 2019.
However, Fornal’s display in the Hammers’ 5-1 thrashing by Liverpool in the EFL Cup quarter-final on Wednesday has only confirmed that the club need to cash in on the attacking midfielder.
West Ham had recently triggered a clause in the Spaniard’s contract, keeping him in East London until the end of the 2024/25 campaign without the player’s consent, as per Sean Whetstone.
While some may have seen it as a positive for the player, it is understood that the club have extended his contract in an attempt to receive a bigger fee from any interested parties during the January or summer transfer window.
Barcelona are said to be the most recent interested party in Fornals, according to Fabrizio Romano, but selling him may be slightly difficult with the player out of form and shunned to the West Ham bench.
His 90-minute cameo against Liverpool will not have helped the situation either, with Fornals clearly no longer in David Moyes’ plans at West Ham. He was non-existent against Jurgen Klopp’s Reds.
The midfielder only managed to record a successful pass rate of 64 per cent, completing 0 per cent of his crosses and 0 per cent of his long balls. He was also unable to make the desired impact against Liverpool’s midfield trio of Dominik Szoboszlai, Wataru Endo and Curtis Jones, losing 50 per cent of the ground duels he entered. [FotMob]
It is safe to say that Fornals has not been allowed the chance to perform this season, but there is obviously a reason why, especially with West Ham’s stack of talent in midfield and attack.
If West Ham are offered the chance to offload the player during the January transfer window, they should. The player’s skillset no longer matches the club’s ambitions of Premier League and European success.
In other West Ham news, a journalist has made a prediction over Kudus’ future after what he saw last weekend.