Ben Johnson set for January departure as West Ham United transfer decision made
Ben Johnson could be set to leave West Ham in January after it has been revealed that his contract won’t be extended.
Sean Whetstone, the editor of 6foot2, tweeted on Tuesday (19 September) that the 23-year-old defender and midfielder Connor Coventry will be allowed to leave as free agents next summer once their deals expire.
That means it’s likely the Hammers could look to cash in on both players in January, with Johnson having more transfer value due to his experience in the first team.
It will have come as extremely disappointing news for the right-back to have learned that his time with the Irons is set to come to an end.
He has been at the club since he was seven years old before progressing through the renowned academy and making his way into the senior side.
Johnson made his Premier League debut in a 2-1 defeat to Manchester City in February 2019 and has since competed for a place in the West Ham backline.
He has made 87 appearances during that time, scoring two goals and laying on one assist, having played in every position at the back.
While his opportunities have been limited at times, he has provided competition for Vladimir Coufal and threatened at times to make the right-back spot his own.
But his game time started to tail off last season, having played just 29 matches compared to 35 in the previous campaign.
A pivotal moment proved to be the 4-0 hammering against Brighton in March, where the defender had an extremely poor game and then didn’t play a minute of Premier League football over the course of the next eight matches.
Despite being on the bench for the opening three fixtures of this campaign, he hasn’t played a single minute and he hasn’t been included in the squad for the past two games.
On that basis, the news that his contract isn’t set to be extended doesn’t really come as too much of a surprise given how his importance to the team has significantly lowered over the past few months.
With David Moyes clearly not keen on keeping Johnson at the London Stadium, it would be best to try and recieve a fee for him in January, rather than let him go at the end of the season.
In other West Ham news, one player was disrespectful to the club after what he did against Manchester City.