West Ham United want to sign Jonathan Tah and Piero Hincapie from Bayer Leverkusen, future’s intertwined – Ben Jacobs
West Ham United want to sign Bayer Leverkusen defensive pair Jonathan Tah and Piero Hincapie, but their futures may be intertwined according to Ben Jacobs.
Writing for Caught Offside (12 December), the journalist reports that he doesn’t expect Germany international Tah to leave the Bundesliga in January as they are flying high and his release clause has now expired.
But with so much interest in their players, Leverkusen sources told Jacobs that they only want to sell two players in the summer which means the futures of Tah and Hincapie may be intertwined with only one allowed to leave.
“I don’t expect Jonathan Tah to go anywhere in January, not with Leverkusen flying,” he said.
“He also won’t be a bargain in the summer because a €20m release clause previously in his contract has now seemingly expired.
“Several Premier League clubs are across Tah, whose contract expires in 2025, so this summer might be the time for Leverkusen to accept a fee if the player doesn’t want to renew.
“But Leverkusen CEO Fernando Carro told me they only want to lose a maximum of two players this summer, meaning Tah, Edmond Tapsoba and Piero Hincapie’s futures may all be intertwined.
“Tah has been looked at by Chelsea, who want a centre-back, Spurs and West Ham, with the latter also admiring Hincapie.”
Blow
It’s clear that the Hammers are in need of defensive reinforcements in 2024, with Kurt Zouma and Nayef Aguerd being targetted by Saudi Arabia, Angelo Ogbonna getting on a bit and Dinos Mavropanos struggling to make an impact so far.
Tah would have been a sensational value signing for just £17m when his release clause was active but would now surely cost a lot more, and there is also a lot more competition for his signature too.
Hincapie is a younger, rawer version of Tah and would be a great signing too but with Tah seemingly the more likely option to leave it means Leverkusen will no doubt want to keep the Colombian.
As good as Tim Steidten is, and as well as he knows Leverkusen’s players and negotiators, this may be too big a hurdle for even him to overcome and we may be forced to look elsewhere for players to strengthen the team.
Hopefully the club are aware and are making plans to ensure they’re not caught out cold because of it, because we know that we need players to come in and make us better.
In other West Ham news, club open to offers for first-team ace Moyes believes isn’t “worthy” of game time.