West Ham United may have just dropped two blatant summer transfer hints on the club’s own official website.
West Ham fans may remember it was not all that long ago the club used to discuss transfer rumours on its own site.
The Hammers had a section called the West Ham insider which went into detail about deals.
It seems unfathomable – almost laughable – now that a Premier League football club would do such a thing.
But West Ham did – albeit not for very long due to backlash from many fans who felt it was amateurish and self-defeating.
There were some supporters who enjoyed it of course and the fact they were being kept up to date by a direct club source.
If it was still around this summer, there would certainly be plenty to discuss.
New West Ham boss Julen Lopetegui and technical director Tim Steidten are in the midst of a massive summer rebuild.
The wonderful world of transfers
This weekend it has once again been confirmed the Hammers are looking for up to eight signings.
The specific positions Lopetegui and Steidten are looking to strengthen have also been revealed.
Brazilian teenage attacker Luis Guilherme looks set to be the first of those eight West Ham signings.
The Hammers have of course been linked with a host of other stars.
You can usually gauge whether a player is a serious target based on how consistently they are linked with a move over a period of time. As they say, there’s no smoke without fire.
If a player is persistently linked with West Ham then – more often than not – either he, agents or the club are trying to make that move happen.
That has been the case with several players over the last few months leading into the summer window.
And West Ham may have just dropped two blatant transfer hints on the club’s own official website.
West Ham may have just dropped two blatant transfer hints
Earlier this week talkSPORT named the four key signings they believe Lopetegui is looking to make to go straight into his new-look West Ham starting XI next season.
Guilherme was one, Jota Silva another and the report also named two of Lopetegui’s former players Max Kilman and Youssef En-Nesyri as the other two.
Wolves captain Kilman has been heavily linked with a move to West Ham both in January and again since it became clear Lopetegui was going to replace David Moyes.
Kilman has been linked with a £40m move to east London as one of two new centre-back signings.
Striker En-Nesyri is another longstanding Hammers target.
He played some of his best football under Lopetegui and has been linked with a £17m move to West Ham this summer at the third time of asking.
So it is surely noteworthy that both players have been mentioned and praised in a new interview with Lopetegui on West Ham’s official website.
Discussing improving players, both West Ham targets Kilman and En-Nesyri were among those picked out for special mention.
Kilman and En-Nesyri get West Ham mentions
“At Sevilla, the likes of France defender Jules Kounde, Argentina winger Lucas Ocampos, Spanish midfielder Oliver Torres and Morocco centre-forward Youssef En-Nesyri all played the best football of their careers under Lopetegui’s guidance,” the West Ham report states.
“At Wolverhampton Wanderers, Max Kilman grew into one of the Premier League’s best young centre-backs.”
Whether a coincidence or not, it’s certainly interesting those two names have cropped up.
Both would massively improve West Ham.
So fans will be hoping there is indeed something to the fact their names have been subtly dropped into an interview with the club’s new head coach like that.
We shouldn’t have to wait too long to find out whether there is anything to it.
Sevilla need money by the end of the month to avoid potential sanctions.
And Gary O’Neil has admitted Wolves must sell a top player before they can make signings in the summer window.
