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After two years finishing out of the Premier League top seven, West Ham United are now looking to strengthen their squad to fight back into European football.
Back in 2021/22, under the management of David Moyes, West Ham secured their slot in European football in the new UEFA Europa Conference League, going on the next year to actually win the tournament, defeating Fiorentina 2-1 in the final thanks to goals from Said Benrahma and Jarrod Bowen.
Unfortunately it seems the focus on competing in the Conference league had a knock on to the Hammers’ Premier League campaign, coming 14th overall.
Whilst last year, the London based club climbed another five places to ninth, the club are still without European football, and with Moyes now gone, new manager Julen Lopetegui is making it his aim to get back into the top seven.
The Spanish manager has already bought in Max Kilman from Wolverhampton Wanderers and Luis Guilherme from Palmeiras for a combined total of over £65 million. Sheffield United’s Wes Foderingham has also joined on a free transfer seeing a total of three new players move to the London Stadium in a matter of weeks.
Lopetegui has also seen a number of transfers the other way with Ben Johnson gone on a free transfer to Ipswich, Said Benrahma to Lyon for £12 million and Thilo Kehrer to Monaco for £9.2 million. Whilst the club have spent more than they’ve made, West Ham are still looking at being proactive in the transfer market, now turning to United for further recruits.
Reports from Football Insider claim that West Ham are now enquiring about United’s right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka and his availability for a potential move.
Wan-Bissaka is now in the final year of his contract and despite relying on the right-back last year to cover the left-back role thanks to the injuries experienced by Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia, it doesn’t appear that United have any interest in extending his contract.
With this in mind, this summer will be the last chance the Red Devils have to cash in on the 26-year-old before he potentially leaves the club on a free transfer.
It’s been reported previously that the right-back, who is currently second choice to Diogo Dalot in Erik ten Hag’s plans, has registered a lot of interest from European clubs already this summer, most notably from Galatasaray and Inter Milan.
With United keen to offload Wan-Bissaka, even considering using him and Victor Lindelof in a player-swap deal for Jarrad Branthwaite, it’s expected there will be very little resistance to West Ham’s interest.
