West Ham face uphill battle to land Man City ace whose situation mirrors Cole Palmer | OneFootball

West Ham are hoping to land Man City ace, James McAtee, in January but they face an uphill battle to secure the player whose situation mirrors that of Cole Palmer.

Pep Guardiola has seen his Man City side endure an awful Premier League season in 2024/25, but that still hasn’t seen him call up the highly-rated James McAtee to help alleviate the problems.

Cole Palmer type situation could see James McAtee leave City

Cole Palmer decided that a move to Chelsea would benefit his career after being held back at City, and he’s now flourishing at the Blues in what must surely be a huge embarrassment to Guardiola.

It’s all going downhill for City at present with Erling Haaland misfiring and Kevin De Bruyne’s future still seemingly not clear.

James McAtee of Manchester City runs with the ball whilst under pressure from David Hancko of Feyenoord. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

The situation the club find themselves in is unprecedented and appears to be snowballing, with the McAtee situation potentially the next thing to cause problems.

According to The Times (subscription required), West Ham are interested in bringing McAtee to the capital, in the hope that Julen Lopetegui can also turn around a season that has been a real disappointment.

The Hammers aren’t going to get things all their own way, however.

James McAtee needs to leave Man City to flourish like Cole Palmer has

That’s because The Times also note that Nottingham Forest, Brentford, Crystal Palace, Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, Fiorentina and Bologna are all interested in the exciting 22-year-old.

Given that he’s only played for two minutes of the current Premier League season, it’s in McAtee’s interests to move on, and it’s a fair bet that his representatives will be telling the City hierarchy exactly that.

He has 18 months to run on his contract (transfermarkt), so whilst there’s no immediate need to sell, City would be able to procure a better price now than in six months or a year’s time.