West Ham United should seek to strengthen a few areas in the January transfer window and at full-back could be one of them, in the form of Newcastle United’s Javier Manquillo.
According to the Northern Echo, the Hammers are plotting a £5million swoop for Manquillo, who finds himself in a good spell of form for Steve Bruce’s side.
Ryan Fredericks is currently first-choice at the London Stadium but his back-up Pablo Zabaleta is nearing the end of his West Ham stint.
Plenty of fans took to social media after the links broke to express their discontent with the possibility of the Spaniard joining the club…
Twitter: @WHUFCFZ Don’t care if he would be an upgrade on what we have currently. We need better if we want to challenge top 7. (@BrysonJoe6)
Twitter: @WHUFCFZ No thanks. (@tlmdwhu)
Twitter: @WHUFCFZ shocking signing (@stephenlott)
Twitter: @WHUFCFZ So we are bidding for someone, who is running out of contract, so we would rather pay £5m then nothing, we are officially a joke (@txdq12)
Twitter: @WHUFCFZ Javier Manquillo is a decent quality defender and having a solid season in a struggling Newcastle team, ho… https://t.co/urqud2vju4 (@WestHamJoshV)
READ WEST HAM VERDICT
Whilst Fredericks could certainly be upgraded on, it certainly shouldn’t be one of the first areas West Ham look to bolster next month.
You can understand supporters’ discontent; they want the club to go for the best players in order to reach European football and Manquillo’s CV isn’t exactly sparkling.
However, he’d bring added quality to Manuel Pellegrini’s squad and it’s a story that seems to have some legs to it.
