Josh Mulligan’s West Ham transfer links are gathering pace, and the Hibernian midfielder could give Nuno Espirito Santo the type of Championship-ready profile his rebuild needs.
West Ham’s summer cannot be reduced to one high-profile Mateus Fernandes decision. If the club are serious about turning relegation into a one-season interruption, Nuno needs a midfield plan that survives both the transfer market and the Championship calendar.
TransferFeed’s live tracker now frames Mulligan as a deal West Ham are progressing, with talks over a fee said to have intensified. TEAMtalk has previously reported interest from West Ham, Wolves and Southampton after his breakout campaign in Scotland.
The Hammers have already been here once. Read West Ham analysed the first Mulligan talks earlier this month, framing the Hibs midfielder as an early recruitment signal.
The shift now is timing. With sales, wage control and midfield succession all moving at once, Mulligan increasingly looks less like a speculative name and more like the type of signing Nils Koppen was brought in to land before the market hardens.
Why Mulligan Fits West Ham’s Championship Brief
West Ham do not need every summer addition to arrive with Premier League branding. In fact, that would be a mistake.
The Championship asks awkward questions of legs, repeat running, second-ball aggression and availability. Mulligan’s appeal is that his profile sits closer to that week-to-week grind than to a vanity rebuild.
He is 23, can operate through midfield and has been used with enough flexibility to suggest he would not arrive as a narrow specialist. Transfermarkt lists Mulligan as a central midfielder under contract at Hibernian until 2029, while TEAMtalk’s reporting noted his five assists, one goal and rising interest from clubs south of the border.
That matters for Nuno. West Ham’s midfield cannot be built only around returnees, reputations or players carrying Premier League exit noise.
James Ward-Prowse and Edson Alvarez returning to the conversation gives the manager experience, but it does not automatically solve mobility. Fernandes’ future, meanwhile, remains the kind of high-value subplot that can distort planning if the club wait too long for clarity.
Mulligan would not replace Fernandes like-for-like. That is precisely the point.
He would give West Ham a cheaper, younger, higher-energy layer who can be coached into a defined Championship role rather than bought as a finished article with a finished-article price.
Koppen Needs This Type Of Early West Ham Win
For Koppen, the bigger test is not whether West Ham can identify a good Scottish Premiership player. It is whether they can move decisively before the same player becomes a bidding-war asset for the clubs around them.
Wolves and Southampton being named in the same conversation is significant. Both understand the value of recruiting players who can physically handle Championship football but still carry resale upside.
If West Ham allow the process to drift, they risk turning sensible business into another market contest dictated by urgency rather than judgment.
The club’s recent recruitment has too often felt reactive: chasing the obvious name, paying the obvious premium, then trying to retrofit the squad around the consequences. Mulligan would represent a different lane.
Not glamorous, not risk-free, but coherent.
That coherence is what Nuno needs most. Promotion campaigns are rarely won by one headline signing.
They are built by accumulating players who can repeat tasks, absorb tactical detail and keep the side’s floor high when fixtures compress. Read West Ham has already argued that Koppen’s appointment must speed up Nuno’s rebuild, and Mulligan fits that urgency.
West Ham Need Midfield Rhythm Before Fernandes Defines The Window
West Ham’s board have already asked supporters to believe in a fast reset after a damaging relegation. A deal in this lane would make that promise feel more operational than rhetorical, especially before rivals begin setting the price for every available midfielder.
That does not mean Mulligan solves the midfield on his own. It means he would give Nuno a clearer working piece before the bigger Fernandes decision dominates the whole window.
If West Ham are serious about reshaping the midfield, Mulligan is exactly the sort of deal they should be trying to finish early.
Not because he solves everything, but because he would show the rebuild finally has a rhythm.
