West Ham United have made so many defensive mistakes in the Premier League so will they regret not signing Unai Nunez from Athletic Bilbao?
West Ham United backed away from the chance to sign Unai Nunez during the January transfer window as they still have doubts about the £25 million Athletic Bilbao defender, according to AS.
The 2019/20 season has been a strange one for a 23-year-old centre-back.
Nunez produced a faultless performance on the opening day of the campaign as Athletic stunned champions Barcelona at the San Mames and, in a goalless draw against Real Madrid just before Christmas, the Spain international left Karim Benzema stunned with a scarcely-believable backheel clearance from almost on the goal line.
But, in total, Nunez has started just seven La Liga matches. Despite his undoubted potential, he is yet to establish himself as a first-team regular in the Basque country.
Perhaps this is why West Ham decided against triggering the £25 million release clause in the silky centre-back’s contract during the January transfer window. AS reports that the Hammers were indeed interested but their reservations, plus the ‘complexity’ of a potential deal, put them off.
Nunez will surely get a move sooner rather than later, however. The giants of Bayern Munich remain keen, as do other clubs in England and Germany. In this day and age, £25 million is hardly an eye-watering sum either for a defender who already has one Spain cap under his belt.
And with West Ham’s shocking collapse at home to relegation rivals Brighton still fresh in the mind, the London Stadium faithful might already be ruing the failure to bring a defender with Nunez’s class and quality to England when they had the chance.
Angelo Ogbonna, Issa Diop and Fabian Balbuena have all made horrific, costly mistakes since Christmas alone.
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