According to reports in Spain, West Ham are increasingly keen on signing Alavés centre back Guillermo Maripán but if they do, something will have to give.
That something is likely to be Angelo Ogbonna for numerous reasons.
The first is that at 31-years-old, the Italian is beginning to approach the age where a player’s value begins to significantly dwindle, so the Hammers won’t be able to hold onto him for much longer if they want to get a reasonable fee.
In addition, with Issa Diop and Fabian Balbuena already at the club, if Maripán was to join that would push Ogbonna back to fourth choice centre back.
With Winston Reid being given a chance to prove himself, the Italian could even drop further into fifth place; with key areas to improve, it would be much wiser to cash in on him and reinvest.
This point is also important for the squad’s harmony, as it is unlikely the former Juventus man would be happy to see out the remainder of his career from the bench, especially with a lack of game time being a considerable reason that he left Turin for London in the first place.
There has been a ruthlessness about West Ham’s transfer business so far, and Ogbonna could be the next to leave London Stadium as a consequence of that.
