West Ham United have just sold Diafra Sakho to Ligue 1 club, Stade Rennais for £8m and David Moyes is interested in reinvesting the transfer fee along with another £12m for Everton’s Morgan Schneiderlin. The Frenchman has been in poor form for the Toffees this season but has still managed to receive regular minutes under Sam Allardyce. Moyes is interested in bolstering the midfield ranks to address the injury crisis the team is currently facing.
Pedro Obiang missed the last fixture and when asked about his injury, Moyes said, “It’s medical ligament so its one of those ones that you can’t get immediately on how long it will take [to recover] but it’s not a cruciate so that’s really good news. We are just waiting to see if he has ruptured his ligament. We are still checking it, he got scanned yesterday, I just don’t have an exact time of how long it will be.”
Mark Noble has spent a significant amount of the season on the sidelines and has just returned to training. Both Marko Arnautovic and Manuel Lanzini went down with hamstring issues in the side’s 1-1 draw against Bournemouth. The Argentine is set to miss out on regular team action for a month and that is a cause for concern for a side who might be drawn into a relegation battle towards the end of the season.
The fans can take a few positives out of the January transfer window after the arrival of Joao Mario on a loan deal from Inter Milan. And now if Schneiderlin makes the switch to the London Stadium, they can rest easy at least for securing a starting XI.
However, Everton are going through their problems with fitness. James McCarthy went down to a horrific double leg break earlier this month has been ruled out for the remainder of the season. His absence will create a huge gap in the holding midfield role along with the constant fitness woes of Idrissa Gueye. Sam Allardyce has signed attacking options in Cenk Tosun and Theo Walcott but is yet to sign a midfielder of his own.
If he does not sign anybody, the likely of Schneiderlin making his way to West Ham diminishes significantly. The former Manchester United man fails to establish his dominance in the midfield position but still puts in a decent shift on defence.
Maybe the Hammers will have to shell out a bigger deal to acquire the services of Schneiderlin. The gap between them and the bottom three is a meagre 4 points and the team needs an immediate signing to improve upon that 11th position.
