West Ham: ExWHUemployee drops Kortney Hause claim | OneFootball

West Ham United are interested in a deal to bring Kortney Hause to the London Stadium in the January transfer window.

What’s the talk?

That’s according to a claim made by ExWHUemployee (via Birmingham Live), with the West Ham insider revealing that David Moyes’ side have made contact with Aston Villa regarding a move for the centre-back this month, although talks between the two clubs are still believed to be in the preliminary stages.

Regarding the Hammers’ interest in the 26-year-old defender, Ex said: “Hause was on the bench for Villa in their cup defeat at Manchester United [and] has featured very few times under new manager [Steven] Gerrard.

“Despite this, Aston Villa have reportedly offered him the option of a new contract to keep him at the club. Hause is said to be one of a number of centre-back targets [for West Ham] and talks are only at the primary stage.”

Who would you rather at West Ham?

Diop

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Hause

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He’d be a major upgrade

Considering just how much West Ham have struggled for numbers at the back following the injuries suffered by first-choice centre-back pairing Kurt Zouma and Angelo Ogbonna, it would appear a very wise move for Moyes to bring in greater depth into the position this month if he wants to give his team the best possible chance of securing a top-four finish this season.

While it is true that Hause has not featured regularly for Villa since Gerrard’s arrival at the club in November, the former England under-21 international has nevertheless proven that he would make a fantastic addition to Moyes’ current options at the back.

Indeed, over his seven Premier League appearances last term, the £4.5m-rated defender helped his side to keep three clean sheets and scored one goal, as well as making 1.1 interceptions, 0.6 tackles, and 7.6 clearances per game and winning 65% of his duels.

These returns saw the £25k-per-week defender earn an impressive seasonal SofaScore match rating of 7.03, ranking him as Villa’s sixth-best player – and their best-performing centre-back – in the top flight in 2020/21.

For comparison, over his eight league outings this season, Issa Diop has failed to convince that he is of the standard required to be a starter for West Ham. The centre-back has helped his side to keep two clean sheets, in addition to making 0.5 interceptions, 1.1 tackles and 3.3 clearances and winning a mere 2.9 duels per fixture.

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How many Premier League goals did West Ham United score in the 2020/21 Premier League season?

57 62 67 72

These returns have seen the Frenchman average a disappointing SofaScore match rating of 6.59, ranking him as the Irons’ fourth-worst player – and their worst-performing defender – in the top flight.

As such, it is clear to see that the player who Matt Law dubbed a “ridiculous bargain” for the £3m that Villa paid to Wolves for the 26-year-old back in 2019 would be a major upgrade on Diop, leading us to believe that Moyes simply must do all he can to get a deal over the line for the Villa centre-back this month.