Hammers set their sights on Jose Mourinho's team for 34-year-old star's replacement

Similar to West Ham's Premier League all-time record goalscorer Michail Antonio, 34-year-old left-back Aaron Cresswell is also one of the longest-serving West Ham players in the current squad. Cresswell arrived from Ipswich Town in 2014, and has made over 350 appearances for the Hammers as the starting fullback on the left side of the defence. However, since the previous two years, Cresswell is the second choice left-back for West Ham after the arrival of former Chelsea defender Emerson Palmieri, who is a more all-round versatile fullback than the England international.

Emerson's ability to defend and win possession followed by starting a quick build up play on the left flank provides West Ham with more creativity and playmaking down the left side. Despite that, Emerson has been rather inconsistent with his performances in the new season and made a defensive mistake on the opening Brentford goal inside the first minute, two weeks ago. On top of that, the Italy international is 30-years-old and thus, West Ham will need to sign another fullback either in January or in the next summer transfer window.

Hammers set their sights on Jose Mourinho's team for 34-year-old star's replacement

Hence, a better option for Julen Lopetegui's side will be to bring a long-term replacement for Aaron Cresswell and give him regular playing time alongside Emerson, to get the best out of both of them. Now, according to Turkish outlet Fanatik, West Ham have set their sights on Jose Mourinho's club Fenerbahce to sign 23-year-old Jayden Oosterwolde. Fenerbahce signed the Netherlands star last year, and now Oosterwolde is the first choice fullback for the Turkish side following the departure of their versatile defender Ferdi Kadioglu to Brighton in a £30 million transfer move.

Similar to Kadioglu, Oosterwolde possesses a great recovery pace and often advances forward to create more chances inside the final third. Although Oosterwolde is still improving his game, West Ham should enter into transfer talks to sign the 23-year-old for around £15 million in the January transfer window. This will give the Hammers a significant advantage as they can sign Oosterwolde for a relatively low transfer fee in January, and can give him more playing time with a lot of important matches towards the end of the season.

Now, it remains to be seen whether Julen Lopetegui's side will submit an opening bid to sign promising left-back Oosterwolde from Fenerbahce in the upcoming transfer windows.