West Ham submit offer to sign £20k-a-week Southampton player | OneFootball

The vultures are starting to circle around the Saints' carcass as they fall down to the second tier.

West Ham are in pole position to sign Southampton full-back Kyle Walker-Peters this summer and have already made an offer to the soon-to-be free agent, according to talkSPORT.

Every time clubs are relegated to the Championship, the predators of the Premier League come out of hiding to try and poach the best talents from the falling teams at a below-value cost. It happened with Burnley, Luton Town and Sheffield United last summer, and it will happen with Southampton and whoever else comes down (probably Ipswich Town and Leicester City) this summer.

One of the teams fighting to be promoted to the Premier League next season, Leeds United, are already looking at potentially making a move for the Saints' number one, Aaron Ramsdale, as per Football Insider.

The former Arsenal goalkeeper moved to St Mary's last summer, signing a four-year deal on Deadline Day. The length of his contract will give Southampton more leverage when it comes to negotiations for him, but they won't have any control over the future of one of their other appealing assets: Walker-Peters.

West Ham make contract offer to Kyle Walker-Peters

The 27-year-old defender is set to leave Southampton for free this summer and he is already being eyed up by top flight teams, with West Ham leading the chase for the ex-Tottenham Hotspur man, according to talkSPORT.

A contract offer has already been made to Walker-Peters, as per talkSPORT. He is seen by Hammers boss Graham Potter as a great option to provide versatility across his backline, and he's not the only defensive asset from St Mary's that the irons like the look of.

The British outlet also stated that Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Ramsdale are of interest to West Ham too, plus the club's young attacking starlet, Tyler Dibling.

Walker-Peters, who is estimated to earn £20k-a-week at St Mary's, was being looked at by other Premier League teams last summer. Spurs, who sold him to Southampton back in the summer of 2020, have a buy-back clause which they reportedly considered exercising.

Southampton will have a tough task replacing Kyle Walker-Peters

Walker-Peters has started every league game that he has played in this season, only missing two Premier League matches across the entire campaign. There is as little as makes no difference in his ability to play on either side of the flank, making him incredibly useful to any side.

Barring some miracle act of loyalty, they will be without him in the Championship next season, and finding someone to fill his shoes will not come easily, or at any cheap cost.

Southampton will probably need to bring in two new players to try and replace what Walker-Peters offers them, which really does demonstrate his importance to the Saints.