West Ham United dealt blessing as Christian Eriksen race narrows to two
West Ham United could have been blessed by being knocked out of the race to sign Danish international Christain Eriksen this summer.
The 30-year-old returned to football last season with Brentford after his cardiac arrest at Euro 2020 and seamlessly returned to the silky skills we have come to expect from him.
But that deal was only until the end of the 2021-22 campaign and now he is a free agent once more and despite interest from West Ham [Daily Mail, 21 June, page 66] the race to sign him has narrowed to just two clubs.
According to Mark McAdam, Brentford are now joined by Manchester United in the two-horse race for the Dane this summer.
“This is a significant 24 hours in the future of Christian Eriksen,” he said on Sky Sports’ live blog (Friday 24 June, 10:30am) “It’s a fascinating story as Eriksen is deciding on two options. One is Manchester United, the second is Brentford.
“Eriksen is really in a head-or-heart situation, weighing up the pros and cons of joining both clubs. He worked with Thomas Frank as a youngster and had a hugely successful spell there, keeping the side in the league.
“He was the heartbeat of that midfield. Brentford fans would say without Eriksen they could possibly have gone down. That’s how influential he was at the back end of last season.
“There’s a loyalty to the football club after everything that happened to him a year ago but then you have one of the biggest clubs in world football rebuilding their midfield.
While it might seem like a shame initially to no longer appear to be in the running to sign such a player, this might actually be the setback we need to refocus our efforts elsewhere.
We can now forget about signing an attacking midfielder, considering we already have three at the club, and instead put all of our eggs in the baskets of those areas where we don’t have copious numbers of backups such as left-back or upfront.