West Ham and Everton are plotting moves to sign Huddersfield midfielder Aaron Mooy as they step up their interest in the Australia international, according to ESPN.
The news outlet claims that Manchester City and Southampton are also looking into signing Mooy, 27, this summer, with City having the option to re-sign their ex-midfielder for £20million due to a buy-back clause they inserted in his deal when he joined Huddersfield last year.
According to statistics website Spotrac, Mooy earns £50,000-a-week in his deal at the John Smith’s Stadium as the Terriers head into their second season of Premier League football.
Good move for West Ham?
Manuel Pellegrini has wasted no time in improving his defence since he was appointed in charge of West Ham, and he should also be looking into bolstering his deeper-lying midfield options too.
Mooy was brilliant for Huddersfield last season.
He was one of the best tacklers in the Premier League as he appeared 38 times across all competitions for the Yorkshire club.
The Australia international also scored four goals and supplied four assists, proving that he is more than capable of pushing forward too.
If the Hammers can get a deal done this summer, it would certainly be an improvement on their current midfield options.
This is Futbol rating 8/10
Likely to happen?
There are a lot of teams interested in Mooy, but gut instinct says that it will be West Ham or Everton that is in pole position for his signature at the moment.
Even though Man City have the buy-back clause agreement, there’s no way that he would get into Pep Guardiola’s first team and he would surely rather earn first team football elsewhere.
Southampton have recently signed a similar type of player in Stuart Armstrong too, so they could be out of the running.
This is Futbol rating 7/10