The midfield is packed with players vying for starting time for West Ham. Carlos Sanchez is not one of these players. Pellegrini needs to take a financial hit on his 2018 recruit to better construct his team.
When Carlos Sanchez was snapped up at the end of the 2018 summer transfer window few were impressed with Manuel Pellegrini. The Colombian international was far from a next level signing and many supporters were wondering exactly why the player was even targetted in the first place.
Recent memory had fans looking back on his goal-stopping intentional red card for Colombia in the World Cup prior to signing for West Ham that year. Deeper memories harkened back to his time at Aston Villa where he struggled to do contribute anything positive to the English club.
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The idea of bringing in a then 32-year-old player to insulate the team didn’t make much sense, especially with club players like Josh Cullen, Sead Haksabanovic, and Marcus Browne all impressing with the U23 team. With all three sent out on loan, Pellegrini committed to Sanchez as his defensive midfield back up.
He only played in seven matches, with five of them only lasting 20 or fewer minutes. He impressed in West Ham’s 3-1 loss to Arsenal but gave away the ball to lose out 1-0 to Wolves the next game. A knee injury took him out for the entire rest of the season, barring two end-of-season performance totaling 23 minutes.
Originally Pellegrini wanted to keep Sanchez and allow him to win a place in the team, however, this has appropriately changed. At 33-years of age, coming off of a massive knee injury, there is just nothing left for Sanchez at West Ham. The Hammers added him from Fiorentina for approximately £5m. Should anyone be interested in him for any fee Husillos and Pellegrini need to seal the deal to get him off the team ASAP.
It’s nothing personal, but his roster spot outweighs his skill capabilities, even if the Hammers don’t bring in another player this transfer window. I’d rather see competition in the preseason for Sanchez’s place between Powell, Cullen, and Coventry over having a £70k/week luxury player with no future on this team take up the position.
Take the financial loss and move on from him. West Ham have better, more motivated options in house, and before another spell of loans sweeps across the prospect pool it’s a must to give the kids something to play for by getting rid of Carlos Sanchez.