Nuno Espirito Santo patience ends with Soungoutou Magassa as West Ham eye January replacement
Nuno Espirito Santo could quickly end the Soungotou Magassa experiment at West Ham.
Magassa signed for West Ham from Monaco in the summer, but has struggled for regular minutes since his London Stadium switch.
The 22-year-old featured early in Nuno’s reign as Magassa started for West Ham against Everton in his maiden voyage as Hammers boss.
The Frenchman has only featured three times since, although Magassa arguably deserves to start for West Ham more regularly at the moment.
Things don’t look like they’re going to change for Magassa, with his chances potentially set to be further limited in East London across the second half of the season.
Nuno Espirito Santo wanted to show patience to Soungoutou Magassa
West Ham beat Frankfurt to signing Magassa, but it feels as if the money could be better spent elsewhere in claret and blue.
The 22-year-old has featured across just 191 Premier League minutes to this point, with other midfield options regularly preferred ahead of him.
Matheus Fernandes and Freddie Potts started against Bournemouth, with the latter coming in for rave reviews in E20 this campaign.
Magassa has fallen down the pecking order due to the 22-year-old’s success, even after Nuno suggested he would be patient with the ex-Monaco man.
Speaking earlier in November, he said: “Magassa came in, I think in the middle of the park, we have a lot of good options and all the boys are doing really well.
“Arriving to the Premier League for any player is really difficult to adapt, to show all these things, it takes time. We have a lot of situations like that (of Magassa) with players who we need to be patient.”
Looking ahead to the January window, it appears that his patience could already be at an end.
Cajetan Lenz could replace Magassa at West Ham
If the Hammers are to bring in a new midfield option, the chances are that Magassa is going to feel the effects of that decision.
Magassa is bound to feel frustrated, especially with West Ham set to challenge to sign Cajetan Lenz ahead of plenty of Bundesliga clubs.
The 19-year-old has had a positive campaign with Bochum in 2.Bundesliga, with formal enquiries already underway ahead of the winter window.
The defensive midfielder would have to select the Hammers ahead of many top German sides, so would likely get assurances over minutes in East London.
That would not be good for Magassa and could prompt an early exit for the summer signing.
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