Forget Muller, West Ham should sign ex-Tottenham teammate Holtby

Follow us on Google Discover

West Ham have been linked with a move to sign Hamburg attacker Nicolai Muller.

Football London have reported that West Ham United are free to talk to Hamburger SV attacker Nicolai Muller on a pre-contract basis as his current deal ends in the summer, but should the Hammers consider his teammate Lewis Holtby?

Muller, 30, is out of contract at Hamburg after finally recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury that he suffered just 15 minutes in Hamburg’s Bundesliga campaign – in which he scored.

Now back to fitness, it is believed that the Hammers can sign the versatile attacker but face competition from Southampton for Muller, who can play as a striker, a winger or in the number 10 role.

But with his proneness to injury, the last thing David Moyes will want to do is to add another player who could spend more time on the sidelines than on the London Stadium pitch.

The Hammers already have plenty of players with a susceptibility to injury. Marko Arnautovic, Andy Carroll, Manuel Lanzini and Michail Antonio have all recently suffered injury, leaving the Hammers threadbare in the final third.

With no Premier League experience, Muller is not a risk worth taking. Instead, the Hammers should go after teammate Lewis Holtby who turned out for bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham during his Premier League days.

The east Londoners desperately need a central midfielder in the summer after being left with just Cheikhou Kouyate and Mark Noble in the middle of the park, with Pedro Obiang suffering a long-term injury. Josh Cullen is still unproven.

Holtby, 27, is renowned for playing in the number 10 role but proves just as effective in holding midfield and is available on a free, just like Muller, at the end of the 2017-18 campaign.

Landing the former Spurs ace for nothing would be an excellent signing, with Holtby currently in the peak of his career and the Hammers would finally fill the central midfield void which they tried desperately to in January with no avail.