West Ham United journalist Roshane Thomas has been discussing the latest transfer rumour surrounding the east London club.
This comes after Thomas recently made an appearance on The Athletic’s Hammers-themed podcast U Irons, where he spoke about the latest news stories concerning David Moyes’ side.
After it was recently reported by Russian football expert Artur Petrosyan shared a post on his official Twitter account saying that West Ham “are in” for Spartak Moscow midfielder Alex Kral, Thomas had this to say on the matter.
He said: “West Ham have been linked with [a] Spartak Moscow midfielder called Alex Kral. He has the same agent as Vladimir Coufal and his valuation is in the region between £12-15 million and it’s a player West Ham are looking at – but not as a first-team regular, more so as a backup for [Declan] Rice and [Tomas] Soucek.”
The 22-year-old, who is currently valued at £7.2 million, signed to Spartak back in September 2019 from Slavia Prague for a fee of £10.8 million.
Overall, the midfielder has made 39 appearances for Spartak in which he has managed to provide two assists for his team (per Transfermarkt).
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TIF Thoughts on Roshane Thomas’ comments on West Ham’s interest in Kral…
With Kral only joining Spartak last year and with his current contract at the Russian club not set to expire until 2024, this may make it a bit difficult for West Ham to sign him anytime soon.
Also, taking into consideration that Kral has played every minute for Spartak in the Russian Premier League so far this season, this suggests that he is an important figure for their team, meaning they could be reluctant to allow him to leave the club.
Additionally, if Kral would be coming to West Ham as a backup to Rice and Soucek, as Thomas mentioned in the podcast, this may put him off a move to the club and instead might just continue playing regularly in Russia.