West Ham want to sign 20-year-old Anderlecht attacking midfielder Mario Stroeykens this summer, with reports suggesting talks are underway already. 

It looks increasingly likely that Lucas Paqueta will leave the club this season if he doesn’t get banned. But either way, he very likely won’t be playing for West Ham United next season.

This means Graham Potter will need a replacement. However, it’s a difficult one because it looks like Potter will be playing a system without a number ten, so we don’t need to go out and spend £40m or whatever it would cost to directly replace Paqueta.

This is where a player like Stroeykens comes in, while he is an out-and-out attacking midfielder, he would probably cost less than £20m which is the sort of fee you play for a squad player in the Premier League these days, which is exactly what he’ll be, at least to start with.

According to Belgian daily Het Nieuwsblad, Anderlecht will need a transfer fee in the region of €20m to part ways with Stroeykens. This should be easily affordable for Premier League West Ham. However, Lyon and Frankfurt are also interested, which could make it difficult.

However, if West Ham could get a deal done, it could be very exciting. Stroeykens has had a bright season in Belgium, scoring four goals and providing 6 assists in 40 matches. He can also play on the left wing, We are desperate for depth on the left due to Summerville’s injuries, so that’s another huge bonus for Potter.

As always, signing a young player from a lesser league can be a risk. But it’s a risk we need to take more if we want to progress as a club and build a younger and hungrier team.

Stroeykens is exactly the type of player West Ham fans have wanted us to be linked with under Graham Potter, as we want him and Macauley to almost recreate the Brighton model, and it looks like that could well be happening with the recent transfer links.