Report: West Ham scout Czech Republic as they hunt new striker and centre-back
West Ham reportedly want to continue plucking players from the Czech Republic after successful a start to life in London for Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal.
According to Hammers news website Claret & Hugh, the Irons are on the hunt for a new striker and centre-back ahead of the transfer window re-opening in January and have sent scouts to the Czech Republic to continue searching for quality players who are available at good prices.
In the last transfer window, David Moyes signed Soucek, 25, on a permanent basis from Slavia Prague for £19.1million [BBC Sport] while Coufal, 28, cost the Irons just over £5million [Guardian] when he also joined from Slavia.
The Czech First League is hardly known for being one of the best in Europe but the nation itself has produced some fine players over the last few decades with Pavel Nedved, Petr Cech, Milan Baros and Tomas Rosicky among them.
Czech football has suffered a decline in the last 15 years or so with the national team hitting second in the FIFA World Rankings in 2005. Currently, they are 45th, which is one of the lowest rankings the European nation has had.
As for UEFA’s club coefficients, the Czech Republic are 21st, which is lower than Cyprus and Israel.
It is fair to say that Czech football isn’t what it was and isn’t one of the best countries that West Ham should be looking but with Soucek and Coufal so far proving to be successes, there’s no reason why the clubs scouts shouldn’t scour the league for more players like them.
Sparta Prague, Slavia Prague, Viktoria Plzen, Slovan Liberec and Banik Ostrava are among some of the best teams in the Czech First League but the quality really starts to dwindle beyond them.
It’ll take a lot of hard work but we reckon that the Czech Republic could be a successful hunting ground for West Ham in the coming months and, potentially, years.
In other West Ham news, Jack Wilshere has discussed his exit from the London Stadium.