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Why West Ham links to Moussa Marega are fake news

By Adam Smith

PORTO, PORTUGAL - MARCH 07: Moussa Marega of FC Porto celebrates his team's second goal before VAR decision to cancel the goal during the Liga Nos match between FC Porto and Rio Ave FC at Estadio do Dragao on March 07, 2020 in Porto, Portugal. (Photo by Jose Manuel Alvarez/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
PORTO, PORTUGAL - MARCH 07: Moussa Marega of FC Porto celebrates his team's second goal before VAR decision to cancel the goal during the Liga Nos match between FC Porto and Rio Ave FC at Estadio do Dragao on March 07, 2020 in Porto, Portugal. (Photo by Jose Manuel Alvarez/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images) /
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Any lul in football sees West Ham linked with a plethora of players across the world, but this specific link to Moussa Marega is, yet again, completely false and will not happen.

The never-ending links between West Ham and FC Porto striker Moussa Marega have a new chapter to be written – the coronavirus chronicle. Yet again the Hammers have been linked to the Mali international who is playing in Portugal, but now more than ever this link is complete BS.

The biggest strike against Marega is that David Moyes is manager now. Moyes has put in motion that player recruitment should be focused on players under 25-years-old to help build a young, cohesive core. Marega is just about to be 29, putting him well over this age restriction and only a year’s improvement on Michail Antonio (30).

Moyes has also specified that he wants British players to be the target for transfers in. Being from Mali, Marega doesn’t check this box either. To be honest, there is more of a chance that Jordan Hugill plays up top for the Irons before Albian Ajeti, let along Moussa Marega.

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Marega is also a secondary striker by trade, meaning that much like Sebastien Haller, he needs someone else to play alongside. Antonio and even Marko Arnautovic before him are both forwards who can play solo, but with Haller here for the long-haul, there is no need for another non-versatile striker in the team.

The last strike against Marega is his goal production. He plays for Porto, one of the most consistently successful teams in Portugal, yet has only scored more than 13 league goals once in his career in 2017-18 where he netted 22. While that number is high, he only set up three goals that season and has never surpassed six assists in a season during his career.

Marega is a strong, fast forward, not unlike Antonio. However, his sloppy finishing (yes, even in comparison to Antonio), tunnel vision around the goal, and inability to incorporate his teammates in the attack with relative consistency makes his 25m+ transfer in a complete waste of time to think about.

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Manuel Pellegrini’s sacking included the dismantling of his Portuguese scouting network. David Sullivan wasn’t flying in to watch Marega. The money needs to be invested in the backline. All of these reasons and more are good enough to put this rumour completely out of the West Ham collective’s mind for now and forever.

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