West Ham United insider @ExWHUemployee has been discussing a recent claim to emerge suggesting that the east London club are interested in signing Barcelona defender Clement Lenglet this summer.
This comes after Ex co-hosted a recent episode of The West Ham Way Podcast where he spoke about a range of subjects concerning the Hammers.
After it was recently claimed in a tweet by journalist Ekrem Konur that West Ham and fellow Premier League club Everton “are in talks” with Barcelona to sign Lenglet, Ex had this to say on the matter.
He said: “There’s been talk of Lenglet, who I think is a French centre-back at Barcelona.
“Now, I don’t know if there’s truth in that one yet, I haven’t had it confirmed or not, the only thing I would say is that Barcelona are in financial difficulties, which is why the likes of [Martin] Braithwaite and him have been linked with clubs that are looking for players in that position.
“So, we are looking for a centre-back, but I need to have a few more enquiries come back on that one before I can say for certain whether it is [accurate] or not.”
Barcelona signed Lenglet back in the 2018 summer transfer window from fellow La Liga side Sevilla for a fee of £32.31 million (per Transfermarkt).
Since then, the 26-year-old, who is currently valued at £22.5 million, has made a total of 133 appearances for Ronald Koeman’s side across all competitions, in which he has managed to score seven goals and provide two assists in the process.
TIF Thoughts on Ex’s comments on West Ham’s reported interest in Lenglet…
Given how West Ham said goodbye to defender Fabian Balbuena at the end of last season, perhaps the club could see Lenglet as someone who could replace the Paraguayan if Konur’s claim is accurate.
Would you like to see West Ham sign Lenglet this summer?
Yes
No
In our view, with West Ham set to take part in the Europa League this season, perhaps adding Lenglet, who has played 41 games in the Champions League and Champions League qualifiers, to their squad could be a smart bit of business for the Hammers and provide them with some useful experience of playing in Europe.
However, with the Frenchman only managing to earn himself a rather disappointing overall season rating of 6.59/10 for his performances in La Liga last season, making him one of Barcelona’s lowest-rated players according to WhoScored, perhaps West Ham should reconsider their reported interest in signing him this summer.