West Ham have completed the season-long loan signing of Al Jazira playmaker Manuel Lanzini. Like most Hammers out there, we don’t know much about the talented 22-year-old, so we asked someone who does. South American football writer Sam Kelly of hastaelgolsiempre.com was kind enough to share his views on the former River Plate starlet. Check out his Argentine football podcast, Hand Of Pod!
Hailing from the western suburbs of Buenos Aires, Manuel Lanzini joined River Plate’s youth system at the age of just nine, and for several years was one of the main prospects at a club with a big reputation for producing young talent (including among many others, former West Ham player Javier Mascherano).
He made his debut for the first team in 2010, ages 17, and a couple of matches later played a starring role in a 3-2 win over Independiente, setting up River’s second goal and wreaking havoc in the opponents’ defence with his deft touch and eye for a pass. The stage seemed set for a glittering career, but injury hampered his progress during that campaign, and the following year he was sent on loan to Brazilian giants Fluminense. There, he performed well enough that the club wanted to make the move permanent, but they were unable to match the €15m transfer clause in the loan deal, and he returned to River, where he was given the No. 10 shirt.
The next couple of seasons were frustrating for River fans looking out for Lanzini; whilst rarely if ever putting in an outright stinker of a performance, he seldom set the world alight either. Given the pressure he was under during the time to produce, though, it speaks volumes that he played the vast majority of matches as River – who’d spent the 2011-12 season in the second division for the first time in over a century – first established themselves back in the top flight and then claimed a league title.
Having rejected a move to the United Arab Emirates in 2013, citing a desire to put sporting concerns ahead of financial ones, he did move to Al Jazira in 2014 – there comes a time in every Argentine player’s life when, unable to earn significantly in the domestic league and aware that the chance to get a well-paid foreign move might not come along again, such a move becomes impossible to turn down.
That move ran the risk of seeing him disappear from view, so a move to the Premier League should prove a fine motivator, and at just 22 years old he still has plenty of time to improve. He’ll have to do so quickly if he’s to avoid the fate of certain other Argentines in England, as the pace of the game in the Premier League will be a step up for him at first (not necessarily the physicality; the Argentine Primera is a very hard-hitting league in its own right).
Mauro Zárate, Diego Poyet and West Ham’s small Spanish contingent should all help his initial settling, and from interviews he seems to have his head rather better screwed on than Zárate. If he’s eager to learn and is given enough of a run in the side, Lanzini could turn into a very astute signing as West Ham look to move away from the style imposed by Sam Allardyce last season. He’s due a genuinely impressive season still, so it’s not a signing without its risks, but the club could have done a lot worse.
