West Ham to challenge for Arsenal for key target

West Ham look set to challenge London rivals Arsenal for their transfer target Axel Disasi. The Gunners are in talks to sign the defender, but the Hammers are looking to swoop to capture the defender.

Axel Disasi is currently playing for French Ligue 1 side Stade Reims and has impressed this season with his performances. The Frenchmen is a towering and powerful centre-back standing at 6 ft 3 inches, built similarly to current Hammer Issa Diop. Disasi is a very reliable player for Reims having played 96% of all Ligue 1 minutes available this season, this reliability is a trait West Ham desperately need in their backline.

The 22-year-old would massively help improve West Ham’s fragile back-line if he was to join. Disasi strengths are blocking the ball, and the ability to stay focused on the game, very rarely losing concentration. The defender is also immense at clearing the call, he averages almost four clearances per ninety minutes.

Disasi, if he carried on this seasons form, could be an immense defender at the London Stadium, especially with West Ham’s dilemma with their current centre-backs. Winston Reid and Angelo Ogbonna are in their mid-thirties and Issa Diop is being linked with a move away, Disasi could be an ideal replacement.

West Ham will not only have to compete with Arsenal for Disas’s signature though, but the defender has also attached interest from Southampton, Monaco and a host of Bundesliga sides. Disasi is valued on TransfeMarkt.com at €7.2million, and the Hammers will have to pay a lot more than that if they are to beat everyone to his signature. It has been reported that the fee to sign Disasi the required dee would have to be nearer to €15 million.

West Ham is set to have a complete re-vamp of their defence. The Hammers have also been linked to Monaco defender Guillermo Maripan and Leeds star Ben White, this is because of the aforementioned problems with the current crop of centre-backs at the club.