OPINION
West Ham have reportedly made a bid to re-sign Joao Mario on loan from Inter Milan again – and that would be a ridiculously bad move by manager Manuel Pellegrini.
According to Sky Sports Italy journalist Gianluca Di Marzio, the Hammers are in the hunt to sign Mario, 25, again this summer.
It is understood that Real Betis and Sporting CP have also offered to take the attacking midfielder on loan, however Inter Milan are only interested in offloading him on a permanent basis for a staggering fee of £26.7million.
Not only was Mario poor for West Ham in his short-term loan spell last season, he is simply not needed at the London Stadium for the 2018/19 campaign with Pellegrini already making a number of brilliant signings.
Jack Wilshere, Andriy Yarmolenko, Felipe Anderson, Issa Diop, Fabian Balbuena, Ryan Fredericks and Lukasz Fabianski have all been signed by the Irons in what has been one of the best summer transfer windows the club has seen in a long time – but Pellegrini would quickly go from hero to zero if he was to welcome Mario back to East London.
Mario made 14 appearances in all competitions for the Hammers last term, and even though he got himself two goals and one assist, his performances were average, to be modest.
Not only was he not good enough, Pellegrini should really be in the hunt to sign a defensive-minded midfielder, not another attacking one due to the lack of defensive steel in the squad at the moment to help protect the back-line.
It would be a huge mistake to re-sign Mario and Pellegrini must backtrack on his offer to snap up the Inter player as soon as possible.