Selling Lanzini could move West Ham back in squad development

West Ham are reportedly working on a potential new contract for Argentine Manuel Lanzini, and fans are talking about selling him. For me, that would put us back a few years in development.

For the last few years we’ve been complaining about the lack of versatile ball-players that we’ve had in the squad, and now the signing of Fornal is approaching we’re apparently considering selling Lanzini. For West Ham this would probably be an upgrade, but the best thing would be to keep him around.

On more than one occasion in the last few seasons we’ve had a key player who underpins our style of play go down injured, and we’ve lost impetus and had to adapt. If we’re signing Fornal and losing Lanzini, we’re going to play ourselves into the same cul-de-sac we want to get out of.

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There’s been some dispute about the Argentine’s wages in recent weeks, as he seeks to bring them a bit more in line with the higher earners. I’m not sure where I sit on the debate, because everyone has a right to ask for higher wages , and if not for the injury he could have asked for it last season. Whether the club want to give it or not is another question, but on previous play he could well be on over 70-80k. But given the injury and recovery it would probably be more structured, with a lowered basic wage and performance bonuses.

But beyond that, we’re really going to struggle if we put burden on Fornal as a new player and expect him to play all the games. Lanzini would be the perfect player to come on as Fornal tires, plays alongside him when we’re really pushing forward or simply act as motivation to play at your best. I just think selling the Argentine will leave us short of quality in the position when it gets to the middle of the season, or when we have to manage cup matches alongside the league structure.

Next. Fornals is a player to be excited about. dark

Whilst I know my colleagues have argued well that we could re-use the money, I think excess work and cost is really going to negate the benefit of selling and replacing the classy ball playing midfielder. Lanzini as a squad player would be an incredible improvement on before. If we can add a striker to the Fornal signing, I think we can conclude that the window would be a success. I just think losing quality players would be counter-productive to the process.

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