By Louis Nixon

One centre-back that the Hammers have been after for an age is Charlie Cresswell, but have we waited too long to secure his signature?

During the summer, we were one of the only clubs that showed interest in him. Yet, we decided against it, an offer was rejected, and Sullivan suddenly felt put off, which, despite a glimmer of interest being reignited at the beginning of the winter window, was too little too late, as the interest has now widely spread. 

An array of top clubs are now interested in Charlie Cresswell, with VFL Wolfsburg taking action and yesterday placing a €18m bid, which was rejected, as anticipated, as Toulouse has requested a €20+ fee, but given that the French League doesn’t have much money circulating around it, I suspect €22m will be enough to secure a deal. 

Ultimately, if we’re being honest with ourselves, West Ham are missing out on a bargain here. There’s a young, exciting English defender who has a very high ceiling, and he’s available on the cheap! Why would you not sign him? Not to mention, he’s also got Championship experience, so in the event that West Ham suffers relegation, he would be of great help. 

I do understand the flip side to the argument, in the fact that we really do require a leader, but if we’re being honest, the leaders will cost pennies, they’ll be awfully cheap and it wouldn’t cost much to dish out the fee for Cresswell and a leader, both very easily could’ve been concluded by now but play silly games and win silly prizes.

Amongst our classic silly gamesmanship, I do unfortunately believe that we won’t bother placing a bid for Cresswell because we would’ve seen that other teams are interested and probably thought, “ah wells, no chance now”. 

If any care was alive, Charlie Cresswell would be in a West Ham shirt at the minute, and we’d be bringing in a leader or two who’s also a central defender, that’s what we truly required.