West Ham United are taken aback after hearing Newcastle United’s £30m asking price for Jamaal Lascelles. The 24-year-old is on Manuel Pellegrini’s books for the summer but might just be forced to look elsewhere. There is also a standing possibility that the Argentine will be provided with the financial backing to pursue such high profile targets after being appointed on a £10m-a-year contract.
This was a solid assertion towards the Hammers faithful from David Sullivan and the rest of the ownership. Bringing in a former Premier League winner on a such a monstrous contract certainly shows us of the club’s future plans.
Maybe the move will be followed up by the heavy investment strategy that Everton have taken up. This would see high profile names make their way towards the London Stadium to play for a man who delivered two Carabao Cup trophies to Manchester City.
However, West Ham still needs to prove themselves in the English top-flight after facing a relegation scare last term and for that, they need to bring in new players into the side. As for the case of Lascelles, the player himself was noted expressing his gratitude towards Newcastle. He was quoted, “I’m very happy here. You hear things, you hear rumours and stuff, but I’m a young player and I need to be playing football at a good club – and that’s what this is. This is the right club for me at the right time. We have a huge fanbase, an amazing manager, and this club is massive. It has so much history.”
Just last October, the Englishman signed his brand new contract extension with the Tyneside outfit, prolonging his relationship for another 5 years. The centre-back has been rewarded with a regular place in the first team the last term, extending his total games tally to 103 for the club.
Benitez’s defensive system was enough to see the club finish all the way up to the 10th spot of the Premier League table last campaign. That is a massive feat since the side opened up the 2017/18 books with relegation concerns.
Lascelles appeared in 35 last season and scored 3 crucial goals. This, in turn, prompted the Magpies to offer him the extension worth around £50,000-a-week. Obviously, the wealthier clubs will be able to offer him twice that amount but not West Ham in particular.
The Englishman is an important cog in the Magpies system and is currently very hard to replace. Chancel Mbemba is not even considered for selection under the Benitez management and Curtis Good is set to leave the club.
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That leaves Ciaran Clark and Florian Lejeune as the only options and in the current market, finding someone of Lascelles’ calibre will not come cheap for the Hammers.
