[ad_pod ]

Sky Sports have reported that Manuel Pellegrini’s West Ham United have tabled a bid for Lorient winger Alexis Claude-Maurice as they search for their third signing of the summer window.

What’s the word, then?

The Hammers’ approach to the Ligue 2 side is believed to be £10m for the 21-year-old, who has also been linked with West Ham’s Premier League rivals Arsenal.

Claude-Maurice has represented the French national team at every level from under-18 to under-20 and spent his entire career thus far at his current club, having progressed through their youth ranks.

However, following the Brittany side’s failure at promotion to Ligue 1 in 2018/2019, the attacker is expected to leave with the London Stadium very much looking like his next destination at present. He’s a left winger by trade but can play centrally and even be fielded on the right flank.

Real kick in the teeth for Diangana

You may be asking yourself, why do the east Londoners want an exciting young attacking hotshot who can play on either wing or in the middle when they have Grady Diangana, that very thing?

Well, the truth is that this move, if it goes ahead, would be a real kick in the teeth for the Academy of Football product and possibly the beginning of the end for him and the team he’s been with since childhood.

Breaking through into Pellegrini’s side to secure his senior debut last term and making a further 20 appearances in all competitions, many are predicting the 21-year-old to really kick on and become a first-team regular next campaign.

However, a move to bring Claude-Maurice in would suggest that the club don’t have the same confidence about Diangana and perhaps don’t believe his future lies in east London.

The Frenchman is exactly the same age as the Englishman and has an eerily similar style of play. In fact, they are so similar in so many different regards that it would make little sense to have them both in the same squad. This has to go down as the first nail in the coffin of Diangana’s West Ham career.