West Ham United set to sign Jan Bednarek on loan from Southampton, option-to-buy tied into deal – ExWHUemployee
West Ham are set to sign Southampton centre-back Jan Bednarek as a deadline-day replacement for Wolves-bound Craig Dawson, according to ExWHUemployee.
Writing via his Patreon late on Wednesday night (31 August), the reliable Hammers insider reported that Bednarek, 26 is set to join on loan with the Irons possessing the option to make the deal permanent next year.
Dawson, 32, is headed towards a move to Wolves, who’ve beaten Aston Villa and Leicester to his signature.
ExWHUemployee said: “It looks like the replacement for Dawson will be Jan Bednarek, the Polish international from Southampton.
“He is a friend and former international teammate of [Lukasz] Fabianski and looks set to join on loan for the season with an option to buy.”
All change
It seems West Ham have been forced into this move.
Dawson has reportedly been pushing for a move further up north this summer to be closer to his family, who are based in Manchester.
While he’s only moving to the West Midlands, the Rochdale-born former West Brom defender isn’t anywhere near as far away from his family by returning to an area he’s already familiar with from his days at The Hawthorns.
Dawson was commuting all the way from Manchester to London for training and there’s no doubt that had a strain on the defender both physically and mentally.
It’s a shame that he’s got to leave but we understand his reasoning and we wish him all the best at Molineux.
Bednarek seems to be coming in as a replacement for Dawson and we’re happy with that.
He’s been at Southampton for five years and been a fairly steady centre-back at the heart of their defence.
Fabianski is bound to know Bednarek well from the Poland national team so it shouldn’t be too hard for him to settle down in East London.
On the whole, we’re happy with this business.