West Ham United have ‘very good chance’ of signing Ian Maatsen from Chelsea in January – journalist
West Ham believe they have a “very good chance” of signing Ian Maatsen from Chelsea in the January transfer window, according to Dean Jones.
The Hammers were interested in the Dutch starlet during the summer transfer window but he opted to instead stay at Chelsea and battle for regular first-team minutes under Mauricio Pochettino.
But that hasn’t really worked out and he is now likely to leave in January with Burnley and Borussia Dortmund interested (90min, 18 December), but West Ham will try again and feel they have a strong chance of keeping him in the Premier League according to what Jones told GiveMeSport (25 December).
“Maatsen at Chelsea is somebody that they are interested in again. They had a look at him in the summer and I was told that they feel they’ve got a good chance of keeping him within the Premier League.
“I think their main competition might come from the continent at the moment, but West Ham are at least going to try again, and see if they can do anything.
“But yeah, it’s quite a big month actually for West Ham, and they’ve got to be really careful about the type of business they do. And also, of course, tread around the issue of David Moyes’ contract, which is starting to expire once we get into the new year.”
Talented
Left-back has been a problem position for a while at West Ham with Aaron Cresswell ageing and falling out of favour, but the arrival of Emerson Palmieri in the summer of 2022 made things a bit more bearable.
Emerson’s performances have been fantastic so far and he has firmly established himself as the first-choice option, but Maatsen has proven that he is more than capable of challenging for that spot.
He is young and extremely talented, and it shouldn’t be forgotten that he was one of the more standout performers for Burnley as they dominated the Championship to earn promotion last season.
At Chelsea this season he has been playing at left-back, left winger and even as a number ten on occasions which shows his quality and versatility and that will no doubt be appealing to David Moyes.
It will be a situation to watch closely over the course of the January transfer window, but if West Ham are in the race to get a deal done then there’s no reason to believe we won’t be successful.
In other West Ham news, Big-money Hammers star has “demanded to leave” in January.