Report: West Ham want to bring former Tottenham attacker back to England
West Ham are monitoring the situation of former Tottenham Hotspur winger Marcus Edwards, according to TEAMtalk.
Edwards, 21, currently plays for Vitória S.C. in the Portuguese Primeira Liga after leaving Tottenham in the summer of 2019.
His exploits in Portugal have piqued the interest of giants Sporting Lisbon and Porto according to TEAMtalk.
The report also claims that Crystal Palace, Southampton and Fulham are also interested in bringing Edwards back to England but they face one major stumbling block.
Edwards’ contract runs out in 2023 and after only leaving the UK last year, TEAMtalk claim that he is no hurry to return.
Edwards is capped for England from U16 to U20 level and was clearly highly rated by the England set up.
As you can see by Edwards’ Wyscout heatmap he is a right-winger which would mean, if he joined the Hammers, he would be fighting for a place in the team against Jarrod Bowen.
It seems as though Bowen and Edwards are similar players but the West Ham man has impressed this season and his stats are more impressive than Edwards’.
Bowen has four goals and one assist in the Premier League with Edwards scoring once and assisting once in the Primeira Liga.
The West Ham winger is scoring more goals in a harder league which suggests that Edwards would struggle to get in the team ahead of him.
According to Wyscout, Bowen also ranks above Edwards in various key stats for a winger as he is averaging a 58.5% dribble completion rate this season with Edwards only successful with 49.3% of his dribbles.
Bowen is also having more touches in the penalty area as he is averaging 3.89 touches in the box per game this season while Edwards only has 2.3 touches in the box per game.
Edwards could be signing for the future but as pointed out before, he may cost a hefty fee with three years to run on his current deal.
With Bowen impressing this season and other decent wingers at the club, including Said Benrahma, it would seem that the Hammers are well stocked in the wings.
We don’t thinking signing a winger should be a priority for West Ham and Edwards, while having potential, doesn’t quite look good enough to cut it in the Premier League.
In other West Ham news, Rob Green has commented on Sebastien Haller’s performance against Manchester United.