Could Tomas Soucek Fill Two Roles?

In addition to targeting Franck Kessie, Ronaldo Vieira, Nahitan Nandez, Sander Berge, Steven Nzonzi and Joe Allen in order to beef up Hammers light weight midfield, the club are actively involved in trying to 'lure' Tomas Soucek to the London Stadium from Slavia Prague.

The towering 6'4" midfielder has been capped 25 times by the Czech Republic, and would bring the sort of physical presence to West Ham’s midfield that is currently sadly lacking. Although a defensive midfielder by trade, he has managed to score an astonishing 12 goals in 26 games so far this season, meaning he could fill an advanced midfield role and can even be an additional striker.

(Who Scored Stats) Soucek has won an average of four aerial duals per game in six Champions League outings for Slavia Prague this season, the 24 year old also averaged 2.5 tackles, 2.5 interceptions, 2.8 clearances and 0.5 blocks per game in those six games, whilst having an impressive 82.6% pass completion rate.

Slavia want £17 Million for Soucek, which in today's market represents superb value for an established player who has 'years on the clock' despite being only 24. Of course West Ham have low balled an offer of £13 Million which has been instantly rejected.

£17 Million could get the deal over the line, and for someone of Soucek’s quality is essentially a no brainer. David Sullivan likes a bargain, but surely even he realises the fast approaching peril of relegation, dillying and dallying over £4 Million might make good business sense, but there are times when it is necessary to push the boat out in order to merely survive.

Harry Redknapp famously brought in Paul Kitson and big Johnny Hartson to fill the void up front at the time in order to avoid relegation, he spent big, but knew it had to be that way.

Now is the time to write the cheque out from your own funds Mr Sullivan, you can always charge the club an exorbitant interest rate for it later! - Ed