West Ham United are in pole position to bring a top quality central defender to the London Stadium this summer it seems.
Julen Lopetegui is on the cusp of bringing in four new players to West Ham – Niclas Fullkrug, Crysencio Summerville, Guido Rodriguez and Aaron Wan-Bissaka, in addition to the three he’s already signed.
As exciting as those new arrivals will be for the Hammers, Lopetegui still faces a big central defensive problem in my eyes.
The West Ham head coach brought Max Kilman to the London Stadium for £40 million earlier on in the window.
However, he definitely needs to sign another central defender. Kurt Zouma and Nayef Aguerd quite simply aren’t good enough to play at the very highest level in the Premier League anymore.
Hopefully the Hammers manage to move on at least one of them in the summer, whilst bringing in an upgrade at the same time.
And it seems like Lopetegui is trying to do exactly that.
West Ham now lead race to sign Logan Costa
So if West Ham miss out on signing Jean-Clair Todibo this summer, Lopetegui plans to move in for the 23-year-old Toulouse star.
West Ham are leading Bologna in the race to sign Logan Costa from Toulouse this summer.
The 6ft 3in centre-back is a fine defender, and he’d be a smart addition for the Hammers.
In 31 Ligue 1 outings for Toulouse last season, the 23-year-old averaged 1.3 tackles, 3.8 clearances and 2.1 successful aerial duels per game.
During those appearances he made 56.5 passes per game on average and recorded a completion rate of 84.1% (Who Scored).
He possesses impressive pace, is very strong in the challenge, and is at an age where he will only keep getting better over the next decade.
Toulouse allegedly want at least €20 million (£17 million) for the 19-capped Cape Verde international this summer, according to L’Equipe.
That sounds like decent value to me, although some Hammers fans may be fearful of a repeat of the £25 million deal that brought Issa Diop to the club from Toulouse six years ago.
I personally think the 23-year-old is on another level entirely to Diop, certainly in the way he reads the game.
Logan Costa is a very good all round defender, and I think he’d be a good partner for Kilman at West Ham.
