West Ham keenly signs the best CM since Rice for £9m

It can be said that the beginning of this season has not disappeared as West Ham United hoped.

After two rounds of the Premier League, the Hammer sat at the bottom of the table, Sunderland beat the table 3-0 and then beat the table 5-1 last Friday night when Chelsea visited the London Stadium. Tuesday’s Calaba Cup defeat of Wolf Hampton Wanderers only furthered the mood.

On Sunday, the iron headed to Nottingham Forest and things wouldn’t get much easier, then hosted fierce rival Tottenham Hotspur after an international break.

In winning five of the 20 league games in charge, the pressure on manager Graham Potter has increased, so he is eager to strengthen his team by Monday’s deadline, which appears to be targeting midfield reinforcements.

All changes in West Ham midfield

West Ham’s midfield lacks quality since selling Declan Rice to Arsenal for £105 million in two summers.

The Hammer signed Edson álvarez with some money, but Mexico joined Fenerbahçe last week, a season loan last week stressing that such a transfer was not successful.

Without him now, Tomáš Souček and James Ward-Prowse are starting to oppose Chelsea, while Guido Rodríguez and Andy Irving are still unused alternatives, highlighting the real lack of talent at Potter’s disposal and still looking for a real replacement for Rice.

Well, it seems West Ham will strengthen their midfield choice, close to Monaco’s Soungoutou Magassa, reportedly at €20 million (about £17 million).

The 21-year-old has made 57 appearances for the Ligue 1 team so far, and his performance has received positive reviews.

Jacek Kulig, a soccer genius scout, called him “elegant” and the “full midfielder” praised him for his “passing, tackle, positioning and athleticism.”

This does sound promising, but can West Ham provide the French with a dream midfielder?

West Ham chases another midfielder

As reported earlier this week, West Ham is interested in signing Lorenzo Pellegrini from Roma by the deadline, with the player worth about £9 million.

The 29-year-old has less than a year left to contract with Giallorossi and is not in the plan for new manager Gian Piero Gasperini, so why sports director Frederic Massara said: “Pellegrini will leave…we are not going to extend the contract, we are looking for a solution to not lose him as a free agent anymore”.

Despite appearing to be bombed by the Rome Junior Club, Pellegrini first joined the 11-year-old La Lupi, who has been a major figure in Stadio Olimpico.

In addition to his two-year stay at Sassuolo between 2015 and 2017, the midfielder is a single club man who has accumulated 316 appearances, scored 55 goals and scored 59 assists, and won the honor of the conference league in 2022.

Pellegrini did not play on Saturday night’s Serie A against Bologna when they tried to force him out, but was a key figure last season, amassing 34 appearances, starting 20 league games and five games in the Europa League, with only eight outfield players seeing more minutes in all matches.

Ivan Jurić, who briefly took charge of 12 games in Roma last season, asserted that Pellegrini “acted like God” and also received high praise from other former head coaches.

José Mourinho claims he “can do it all”, adding that he is “the best player we have in Italy”, and Claudio Ranieri thinks he has managed two “phenomenons” midfielders in his career, named Frank Lampard and Pellegrini.

So, how does Italian compare to the gold standard for West Ham midfielders?

Let’s compare the duo to find out.

The table compares Pellegrini’s statistics from the 2023/24 season (sheld due to a few minutes lacking) and Rice’s final year in West Ham in 2022/23.

Aside from that, it’s no surprise that Rice is the more impressive all-around midfielder, so why is he a mover for £105 million.

However, the Italians’ more goal is to register more goals and assists, as well as more shots and opportunities created on a 90-based basis.

So while Rice’s death and failure statistics are superior, Pellegrini’s statistics are mostly not behind, especially in duels, emphasizing that he can compete at the Premier League level.

Given his statistics and praise from numerous former coaches, the Italian International will certainly improve West Ham’s slow midfield choice and only £9 million, he can prove to be an absolute bargain.

Compared to Magassa, who scored only one goal in his high school career, Pellegrini seemed to be the perfect partner, and the French continued to move forward and did defensively dirty work that allowed the Italians to move forward and get creative.