The summer window is fast approaching, and for West Ham, they know there’s no room for average signings.
From improving the defence to sorting out the attacking situation, Manuel Pellegrini has a lot to do over the summer to improve a squad West Ham fans will be expecting to challenge for a top-half finish, but their latest rumoured target is someone who won’t exactly take the Hammers to that goal.
According to the Telegraph, West Ham, as well as Watford, are interested in Stoke City midfielder Joe Allen, a player David Sullivan admitted to the Daily Mail unsuccessfully bid £25 million for in the 2018 January transfer window.
In the Championship this season, Allen has had an impressive season, with the 29-year-old bagging six goals and assisting another three in the English second-tier as Stoke look set to finish the season in the bottom half of the table.
There’s no question that the Welsh international is a player who deserves to be playing in the Premier League. The central midfielder was one of the better players for Stoke in the season they went down and has carried that form well into the Championship, but for West Ham, Allen is someone they should be steering way away of.
At 29, Allen is heading into the winding down years of his career, and with Mark Noble still performing well and the emergence of Declan Rice cementing his place as a West Ham starter for years to come, the Welsh international would be too expensive an option to bring in as an option on the bench.
As well as being a pointless area to the pitch West Ham really doesn’t need tweaking with, funds into signing Allen could be used on players that can actually improve the team in the starting XI, such as a new fullback or striker.
Allen might seem like a sensible transfer on paper, but the reality is that Pellegrini is a lot better investing in other areas of the pitch rather than bloating out one of his more stronger positions.
West Ham fans, would Allen be a bad signing? Let us know!
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