West Ham opinion: Arthur Masuaku’s new deal spells good news
According to BBC, Congolese left-back Arthur Masuaku has signed a new four-year deal with West Ham, which should keep him at the club until the summer of 2024.
BBC understands that the 25-year-old’s new deal also has an option to extend the contract by a further couple of years.
Masuaku, who joined West Ham from Greek giants Olympiacos back in 2016 for a fee of £6.2million on an initial four-year deal, had only 12 months left to run on his contract at the end of last season, but the Hammers have acted quickly to secure his long-term future at the club.
The 25-year-old has struggled to establish himself as a sure starter at the club over the past three years, although his performances have largely earned him positive reviews.
Masuaku made only 15 appearances in all competitions in the 2016-17 campaign but he earned a more significant role in the following season and accumulated a total of 33 appearances, including 27 in the Premier League.
However, the 25-year-old was forced to share the left-back duties equally with Aaron Cresswell in the Premier League last season, with manager Manuel Pellegrini struggling to decide his first-choice in that position and constantly rotating the two players.
Nevertheless, Masuaku still made 27 appearances for the Hammers last term before participating at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt where he guided DR Congo to the round-of-16 stage.
Though not a sure starter in every game, is certainly one of the key players in the club’s ranks at the moment and it is not difficult to see why West Ham have done the right thing by moving quickly to secure his future.
The Hammers were at the risk of losing out on the left-back’s services for absolutely nothing next summer and the new contract can be considered as a vote of confidence from the board.
The Congolese international sometimes tends to let his team down with moments of sloppiness in his own defensive zone but he does pretty well to contain the opposition more often than not.
He might not be the most secure full-back in the world but he certainly contributes equally in both halves, with his lightning pace, acceleration, agility, athleticism, fluent passing, dribbling, flair, strength and aerial ability making him a solid well-rounded modern-day attack-minded full-back.
Still only 25, Masuaku has plenty of time to make significant improvements to his game, and one would expect him to enter his prime over the next couple of seasons.
To add to that, he has some decent experience of playing in European competitions with Olympiacos, something which might prove beneficial to West Ham should the Hammers manage to make it to Europe under Pellegrini.
Conclusion
All in all, Masuaku is a really talented player and the new deal means that West Ham would to be able to enjoy his services in his prime years.
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The 25-year-old could go on and evolve into a top-quality left-back in the years to come and with that in mind, the Hammers have definitely struck gold by securing his future.