West Ham fear of losing highly-rated 21-year-old defender | OneFootball

Journalist Ben Jacobs claims West Ham are keen to keep young defender Harrison Ashby at London Stadium.

The 21-year-old is free to leave in summer when his contract is up but Newcastle are keen on signing him on cheap before he becomes a free agent in summer.

Eddie Howe is said to be a big fan on Ashby and the player would relish a chance to join Tyneside club in January.

“What I do understand is that there is no new contract at West Ham yet which is the big thing which is causing alarm there,” he said.

“Six months ago West Ham were confident on tying him down for the long run. From West Ham’s point of view they think he’s one of the most talented players to come through their academy system in quite some time.”

Jacobs went on to add: “The danger for Newcastle and there are other clubs looking at him, like Atleti, is that all of this can be used as leverage [in contract talks] and it is quite common for an agent to not think about it and let some time linger.

“They can then take counter offers to West Ham to get the best deal. West Ham will do everything possible to get him to sign a new possible deal but Newcastle are there for sure monitoring the situation.”