West Ham United could face a battle to keep Vladimir Coufal at the club, according to a report from Football Insider. But should he be given a new contract?

The Czechia full-back signed for the club in 2020 and has gone on to make 165 appearances, he was a crucial first team player up until this season due to the arrival of Aaron Wan-Bissaka. The Englishman has already been taken into the hearts of West Ham fans and is unlikely to lose his spot in the starting XI anytime soon.

This has led to Coufal questioning his future at the club and could potentially seek a way out this January. Football Insider reported last week that the Hammers are keen to keep Coufal at the club and have decided to offer him a contract. However, the same outlet has reported this week that overseas clubs are circling for his signature.

Coufal is a brilliant back-up full-back and is an important member of the dressing room so its clear to see why the club want to keep him around. However, it could be best for both parties to move him on. It’s clear that Coufal believes he deserves more game time and he certainly could start for a lot of other teams in the Premier League and around Europe.

West Ham also need to start future proofing their team and to get rid of the aging squad players and replace them with younger players that have the potential to become starters in the future is one of the best ways to do that. West Ham have the oldest squad in the Premier League with an average age of 28.7, more than five years higher than Chelsea who’s average age is 23.5.

One of the reasons for bringing in technical director Tim Steidten was to address this and it hasn’t really happened as of yet so it may be a good time to start with Lukasz Fabianski, Aaron Cresswell, Michail Antonio and Danny Ings also out of contract at the end of the season. The Hammers are also the only team not to have given any minutes to academy products this season, taking this approach could also help the ‘Academy of Football’ flourish.