When West Ham returned to the club back in December 2019 he made it clear that his transfer strategy would be well thought out and effective.
He told fans that he wanted to bring in young, hungry players to the football club in an attempt to make the squad better, and it’s fair to say he’s already done that so far.
The arrival of the likes of Tomas Soucek, Jarrod Bowen, Vladimir Coufal, Said Benrahma and Jesse Lingard have all improved us and every single one of them played a part in achieving a top-six finish in 2020/2021.
And now it appears Moyes is preparing to continue that trend by snapping up promising Reading youngster Thierry Nevers. Club insider ExWHUEmployee has recently claimed that the club are in talks regarding a potential deal for the 19-year-old, whose contract expires at the end of next month.
Nevers, who can play through the middle or on either side of the attack, is yet to make his first-team debut for Reading but has impressed for their U23s side this term, netting three times in nine appearances.
Reading have seen a handful of impressive youngsters come through their academy in recent seasons, with the likes of Michael Olise, Tom McIntyre and Andy Rinomhota all get their first-team chance in recent seasons.
While Nevers is yet to do so, it appears Moyes and his scouting team may have seen something in him that could improve West Ham moving forward.
It’s no secret that, with Europa League football to look forward to next season, Moyes needs to improve squad depth this summer after a number of injuries during the recent season threatened to derail what ended up being a successful year.
Bringing in a promising youngster from the Championship is relatively risk-free but certainly could have its benefits if he is able to learn from those who have made similar moves and excelled in claret and blue over the years.
Obviously, we do have a good record of bringing players up from the Championship and turning them into Premier League players – Aaron Cresswell, Michail Antonio (above) and Bowen are just a few who have taken the leap in east London – but this does also feel like a move that, if it happens, will require patience, as it would be unrealistic to expect Nevers to make the jump from U23s football to the Premier League and Europa League straight away.
Still, this looks like it could be an interesting transfer to keep an eye on as David Moyes begins planning for our first-ever season in the Europa League group stages.
