West Ham United want to sign one or two central defenders this summer, and one of them could be Argentinian Kevin Lomonaco. 

The Hammers had huge problems defensively at the start of the season under Julen Lopetegui. It has improved since Potter took over in January, however, he has completely switched the focus of the team to be able to defend and the attack has suffered massively.

Everyone knows the type of football Potter wants to play, but he hasn’t been able to because of how poor the defence was. If we can bring in a couple of his own players ahead of next season, the manager would likely take some of the shackles off of the attack as he would trust those defenders more than he currently trusts players like Mavropanos, Cresswell and Emerson.

West Ham have been linked with Southampton’s Taylor Harwood-Bellis who will almost certainly be available after Southampton’s inevitable relegation, and Oumar Solet who has had an excellent few months in Serie A with Udinese. However, Football Insider recently reported the club wants someone ‘better’ than Harwood-Bellis and that man could be Kevin Lomonaco.

Speaking on the latest edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, senior correspondent Pete O’Rourke revealed that the Club Atletico Independiente centre-back has emerged as one of the options on West Ham’s list of targets.

The 23-year-old is on loan at the Argentinian club from Brazillian side Red Bull Bragantino. He is an unknown quantity to European football fans but the fact he was picked up by the Red Bull group suggests he has a lot of potential.

Lomonaco has a £17m release clause which would make a deal as straightforward as dealing with a Brazilian club can be. He is believed to have the ability to step up to Premier League football after spending a year on loan in Argentina. But it could be a huge risk when the Hammers need someone to come in and almost make an instant huge impact, but Harwood-Bellis clearly wouldn’t do that either.