West Ham United currently on international duty is being heavily linked with a London Stadium exit this summer.
Julen Lopetegui faces a big summer ahead at West Ham, but with so many players currently on international duty he won’t know for sure exactly where he stands right now.
We’ve already had some bad news after Edson Alvarez picked up a hamstring injury, and we’ve got to hope that nobody else suffers any serious problems.
Whilst the Hammers players representing their respective countries compete in EURO 2024 and the Copa America, Lopetegui is back in East London getting his business done.
Luis Guilherme and Wes Foderingham have already been brought in to the London Stadium, but many more new signings are required.
Lopetegui still needs to sign a new striker, a centre-back, a central midfielder and a left winger at the very least…and perhaps a couple of full-backs as well.
Aside from potential new arrivals, there will undoubtedly be some exits this summer too, and one player in particular could be set to leave the London Stadium when he returns from international duty…
West Ham star on international duty could join new club
Lopetegui is said to have only a £90 million budget this summer, excluding player sales.
So the Spaniard will undoubtedly be looking to supplement said budget by selling a few players in the summer transfer window.
The problem for the West Ham boss is that aside from the really important players he won’t want to lose, there aren’t actually that many sellable assets at the club.
However, one Hammer could fetch us a decent fee, albeit a fairly modest one…
According to Aspor, Galatasaray want to sign Vladimir Coufal this summer, and they will begin talks to prise him away from the London Stadium after the Euros is finished.
Coufal will be about of contract with West Ham in the summer of 2025, and the club are said to be keen to recoup a fee for the 31-year-old.
Back in January, the Hammers exercised a one-year extension option in the Czech Republic international’s contract – something that the player was said to be unhappy about because he thought he deserved a pay-rise.
So the former Slavia Prague man leaving the club this summer would hardly be a shock would it.
Al-Hilal and Saudi Arabia right-back Saud Abdulhamid is on the Hammers’ radar, and could be a cheap option to replace Vlad.
It was claimed a couple of months ago that Vladimir Coufal could leave West Ham in the summer transfer window, and that now seems to be a very real prospect indeed.
Once the West Ham right-back returns from international duty, I expect this one to get done fairly quickly.
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