West Ham should reignite their interest in Victor Wanyama in January

During the English transfer window, The Express reported that West Ham were interested in securing the services of midfielder Victor Wanyama from Tottenham Hotspur on a season-long loan deal.

However, the Hammers failed to negotiate a deal for the 28-year-old with their London rivals and Manuel Pellegrini’s long wait to bolster his central midfield options continued. 

With his future at Spurs up in the air and West Ham not choosing to firm up their interest, Wanyama then had to rely on foreign suitors to offer him an escape route to play regular first-team football once again, with Club Brugge in Belgium touted as his next possible destination. 

Wanyama looked set to seal a move to Brugge but that collapsed on the deadline day, leaving the 28-year-old in limbo until at least January. (h/t London Evening Standard)

Having started only 12 games for the Lilywhittes in the Premier League over the last couple of seasons, the Kenyan is way down the pecking order under Mauricio Pochettino and he can’t really expect things to get any brighter after the club spent heavily to recruit Tanguy Ndombele and Giovanni Lo Celso this summer. 

Injuries, of course, have played a key role in Wanyama’s decline in North London after he enjoyed a brilliant run in the first-team at Spurs in his debut season following his move from Southampton in 2016. 

The defensive midfielder hasn’t been able to make a big impact at the club for a number of reasons and, quite unsurprisingly, Pochettino finally seems to have moved on from him, with the former Celtic man yet to make an appearance for Spurs thus far this term. 

To that end, it is pretty clear that Wanyama’s future in North London is dead and buried and the sooner he completes a move away from the club, the better it is for him, as well as Spurs, who should be looking to get the player off their books if they are not planning to use him regularly. 

With that in mind, West Ham should reignite their interest in the 28-year-old midfield enforcer in January in a bid to add much-needed depth to their options at the heart of the midfield. 

The Hammers made the headlines earlier in the summer with big-money deals for Pablo Fornals and Sebastien Haller and, while the latter has already hit the ground running with some crucial goals, Pellegrini should be aware of the fact that he couldn’t manage to plug all the gaps in his squad. 

The manager has rotated between 4-1-4-1 and 4-2-3-1 formations, with Declan Rice playing as the key anchor deep in the middle of the park.

With Pedro Obiang no longer in the ranks, Jack Wilshere started against Man City on the opening day but he failed to make an impact and went straight back to the injury table, thus compounding West Ham’s woes. 

Things have looked better since the return of battering ram Mark Noble but the Hammers should probably be aware of his age and the need to add more depth in that area of the pitch. 

Carlos Sanchez is out of contract next summer and, even if they offer the 33-year-old a new deal, which they shouldn’t, it is pretty easy to see that someone like Wanyama could make a massive difference with his quality, work-rate, tough-tackling style of play and, of course, experience of over 150 Premier League games. 

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The 28-year-old would compete with Rice for a place in the side while also play alongside him as a part of a double midfield pivot against the bigger sides.

That said, it should be a no-brainer for the Hammers to reignite their interest in the out-of-favour Tottenham man in January.