West Ham United are interested in a deal to bring Ben Brereton Diaz to the London Stadium in the January transfer window.
What’s the talk?
That’s according to a claim made by ExWHUemployee, who revealed on a recent episode of The West Ham Way Podcast that David Moyes is interested in a deal to bring the Blackburn Rovers centre-forward in during the current transfer market.
However, the Hammers insider then went on to state that the Championship side are unlikely to want to part with the Chile international this month due to their lofty position in the second-tier standings – as selling the 22-year-old for a figure of around £20m would not be worth missing out on a shot at the Premier League.
On West Ham’s interest in Brereton Diaz, Ex said: “We like Diaz at Blackburn. I broke that [story] a month or so ago. [The fact that no move has materialised yet] doesn’t mean it wasn’t true, it just means that Blackburn – because they are right at the top of the Championship, having not been in the Premier League for years – why would they want to sell him at this point? You’ve got to factor that in.
“Getting up to the Premier League is worth more than £20m. If you get back into the Premier League the finances are huge. So these clubs will wait until the summer to see where they are before they make a decision on these players.”
Would Brereton Diaz be a good signing for £20m?
Yes
No
Fans will be gutted
Considering just how impressive Brereton Diaz has been for Blackburn this season, in addition to the fact that West Ham are currently extremely short in depth at centre-forward, the news that the Hammers may not be able to get a deal over the line for the 22-year-old this month is sure to have left the London Stadium faithful gutted.
Indeed, over his 26 Championship appearances in the current campaign, the £9m-rated striker has been in remarkable form for Rovers, having already scored an astonishing 20 goals, registered one assist and created two big chances for his teammates, as well as taking an average of 2.8 shots and making 0.7 key passes per game.
These returns have seen the £6.5k-per-week player who Tony Mowbray dubbed an “extraordinary” talent average a SofaScore match rating of 7.00, ranking him as Blackburn’s eighth-best performer in the second tier.
As such, with Moyes in desperate need of backup and competition for Michail Antonio in East London – with the injury-prone striker currently being the 58-year-old’s only option as an out and out centre-forward – a player who possesses the clear ability to find the back of the net such as Brereton Diaz would appear to be the perfect signing for the Scottish manager this month.
However, following Ex’s latest update, it would appear that, should Moyes indeed wish to pursue a deal for the 22-year-old, he will have to wait until the summer – something that will undoubtedly come as a gutting blow to the manager and his side.
In other news: Moyes can repeat Lingard trick with swoop for £6m “fighter”, he’d be “perfect” for WHU