West Ham United send reps to watch £25m-rated best youngster who Tottenham have looked at
West Ham have been to watch one of the “best young defenders in France” who is attracting widespread interest, TBR Football reports.
According to the outlet’s website on 22 October the Hammers are in the frame for RC Lens centre-back Abdukodir Khusanov who is wanted across the Premier League and Europe, while he is rated at around £25million.
Tottenham, Chelsea, and Newcastle, as well as Brighton, Crystal Palace and Brentford have all been to see the 20-year-old, while on the continent he is interesting Bayer Leverkusen, RB Leipzig, Napoli, Atalanta and Marseille.
The Irons signed Max Kilman and Jean-Clair Todibo in the summer but have been left one light at the position by the exits of Nayef Aguerd, Kurt Zouma and Angelo Ogbonna.
West Ham eye Abdukodir Khusanov at Lens
The Hammers invested heavily in their defence during the transfer window, with £40million spent on Julen Lopetegui’s former Wolves man Kilman [Guardian, 7 July], a £34m obligation to buy on Todibo [BBC Sport, 10 August], and another £15m on Aaron Wan-Bissaka [BBC Sport, 13 August].
With more than £100m in outlay during the summer and more already lined up for next year it is unclear how much room to manoeuvre the club has to recruit in the mean time.
Newcastle are said to have identified Khusanov for the January transfer window, and with so many clubs interested it seems likely that he might be unavailable by the time West Ham are in a position to spend big money on another centre-back.
Having let three leave and only brought in two there will presumably have to be another one signed before long, and if Konstantinos Mavropanos is moved on the position will become even more of a priority.
A free agent signing was considered and talks were held with ex-Liverpool man Joel Matip [Standard, 2 September], and former Sheffield United defender John Egan played a behind-closed-doors friendly [Sean Whetstone, 5 September], but the former has now retired and the latter signed for Burnley.
A younger option might make more sense to develop behind Kilman and Todibo, but the Hammers still have Luizao in the reserves who has yet to feature once since signing nearly two years ago.
Very little has gone right so far this term, to put Lopetegui’s job in doubt and technical director Tim Steidten’s recruitment facing questions behind the scenes [Guardian, 21 October].
In other West Ham news, the Irons hierarchy has made their decision on Lopetegui’s future.
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