OPINION
Barcelona are reportedly sending an official to watch West Ham wonderkid Domingos Quina play in the Under-19s European Championship semi-finals on Thursday.
Sky Sports (live transfer centre, 16.09) claim that the Spanish giants are set to step up their pursuit of the 18-year-old midfielder, who has already made six senior appearances for the club.
They will discuss the possibility of signing him with West Ham but Manuel Pellegrini must make it clear that he’s not for sale.
His next job will be to convince Quina to sign a new contract, with his current one expiring next summer.
It might be hard. Barcelona can turn heads and if West Ham refuse to budge then they can come back in January and agree a deal to turn his head for good.
But questions really have to be asked about West Ham’s youth policy at the moment.
If Barcelona are interested in Quina then you know there’s something there. If he goes and Barcelona turn him into the next superstar, West Ham will look stupid.
If they let them sign Quina, they’re not going to get much money for him at the moment anyway – £600k is the figure being reported.
Declan Rice is another young West Ham player that’s seemingly on his way out after reportedly rejecting a new contract.
These are the players that Pellegrini should be convincing to stay and he should be telling them that they have a big and bright future at the club.
Buying players for huge fees, like Felipe Anderson, Issa Diop and Andriy Yarmolenko is only sustainable for so long.
Eventually a club has to encourage homegrown talent to thrive and West Ham should start with Quina.