Highly-rated West Ham man likely to be used as bait for Ward-Prowse capture
Southampton’s James Ward-Prowse is a wanted man, and West Ham could have the edge in the transfer race if they offer one of their young stars in part-exchange.
David Moyes and David Sullivan need to attack the transfer market with vigour now, given that there’s only three weeks until the start of the season and the Hammers still haven’t managed to sign a single player.
For a team that’s just won the Europa Conference League and, as a result, have been granted automatic entry into the Europa League this season, that’s unforgivable.
Using the excuse of having to wait until the money from the Declan Rice deal was confirmed before entering the market clearly wasn’t the wisest choice.
Luckily for the east Londoners, Ward-Prowse is one of their targets that still remains for sale and, as The Guardian report, the set-piece specialist is keen on the move to the London Stadium.
The Hammers could certainly do with a player of his expertise, though a more pressing need is to replace Rice, and any deal really does need to be completed as soon as practicable to enable the player to get used to his new team-mates and way of working ahead of the Premier League kick-off.
The Guardian also suggest that, in order to sweeten any potential deal, West Ham will offer highly-rated youngster, Flynn Downes, in part-exchange.
The 24-year-old hasn’t really hit the heights at the Hammers (no goals or assists in 23 appearances per WhoScored) but is likely to find his level in the Championship and could be an astute pick up for the Saints.
Would we consider contacting West Ham United for Flynn?
It has been just over twelve months since Flynn Downes left Swansea for West Ham but it seems as if the Hammers are prepared to let him leave on loan this season with him seemingly being offered to Southampton on loan as part of a deal for James Ward-Prowse.
However, reports this morning suggest that Southampton are not thinking of that as a possibility with the press stating that they would prefer to take the £40m valuation that they have placed on the head of Ward-Prowse in full.
The Hammers seem to have identified the Southampton player as the man they want to replace Declan Rice who has moves across London in a nine-figure deal to join Arsenal. It is clear to see why given the form of Ward-Prowse over recent seasons and with a wad of cash in their bank following the sale of Rice it seems certain that surely West Ham will get this deal over the line ahead of the new season.
And, as ever, it could be a transfer that could spark a series of moves which could have a knock on effect here at Swansea City. Firstly, you have the links that suggest Southampton have an interest in Matt Grimes. Would Martin see Grimes as a natural replacement for Ward-Prowse? There is nothing to suggest that he wouldn’t given how he elected to build his Swansea side around him so that could be a natural knock on. Then you have the interest they have in Piroe. With their own stack of cash in the transfer kitty they could easily match the Swans valuation of the striker and take Piroe to St Mary’s to spearhead their promotion challenge.
Both of those scenarios are of course hypothetical but feasible given the move of Martin to Southampton and his admiration for both players from his two years in SA1. Certain to happen? Not at all but we watch with interest.
The question then comes as to what do we do if this happens? We know if we lose Grimes then we will need a replacement and does that bring us back to the fact that West Ham are potentially prepared to let Downes go out on loan? Possibly? Hopefully? We know what Downes is capable of as we watched it for twelve months before he moved to the Hammers. So would we consider an approach to take him back on loan for a season in the event of the departure of Grimes?
