West Ham United want Chelsea’s Emerson next with Thilo Kehrer deal close
West Ham are “closing in” on signing Paris Saint-Germain defender Thilo Kehrer and are looking at Chelsea’s Emerson Palmieri next, Jacob Steinberg reports.
The German international is needed after the Hammers started the season with an injury crisis at centre-back and had to start Ben Johnson in the middle for the opening two losses.
PSG want £16million for him despite him only having a year left on his current contract and there had been a gap between the two sides’ valuations, but the Irons are now “confident” of completing a deal for him and will aim to get it wrapped up in time for him to face Brighton on Sunday (21 August).
In his story on the Guardian website Steinberg wrote: “West Ham’s negotiations with the French champions have been positive and they are hopeful of beating off competition from Sevilla.”
Next on the agenda is help at left-back and West Ham are turning their attentions to Stamford Bridge, where Italian international Emerson is for sale as he is stuck behind big-money men Ben Chilwell and Marc Cucurella.
The new owners don’t want to loan him out again and want to secure transfer fees for players who are surplus to requirements.
Vital
The season wasn’t supposed to start like this after a largely encouraging summer that saw the club keep hold of Declan Rice and add some important new signings.
Two defeats in two looks terrible on the league table at the moment but can be quickly rectified if they can sort of the defence and get a bit more luck.
Johnson is primarily a full-back and once Kehrer’s move is completed will likely become the club’s sixth-choice in the middle, so it is a measure of how things have turned out at the position that he has started both matches.
Nayef Aguerd’s injury has caused all manner of disruption at the back, but while a deal for Kehrer wasn’t planned it could be a helpful run in the long run.
He should help address things immediately while having the potential to be one of the top two or three options for the next few seasons.
The pursuit of Emerson makes sense as long as he isn’t too pricey, as the club have been after left-back targets all summer with no luck.
The Todd Boehly regime seem to be better at spending money then recouping in so there has to be optimism that the Hammers can pick up the 28-year-old for a relatively low fee, and the fact that he has Premier League experience makes that pretty useful.