West Ham United have moved to secure the long-term future of their academy product Ben Johnson by tabling a new contract to the young defender, according to Calciomercato.
The right-back has just eight-months remaining on his current deal at the London Stadium, but has impressed in recent appearances.
David Moyes has relied on the 21-year-old in recent weeks while Vladimir Coufal recovered from a groin injury. Johnson has started West Ham’s last three Premier League games with Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa.
Johnson also scored the opening goal at Villa, cutting in onto his weaker left foot to find the bottom corner. Setting the Hammers up to win 4-1, with only the second goal of his senior career after 32 appearances.
He has started seven of eight outings so far this term across all competitions, after opening 10 of 20 last season. West Ham now hope to secure Johnson’s long-term future and have offered the London-born talent a new contract.
Johnson signed his current £19k-a-week deal in March 2019 following his Premier League debut a month earlier under Manuel Pellegrini.
As well as scoring against Aston Villa, Johnson was solid defensively for West Ham to stay fourth in the table. Following a confident display in the Carabao Cup against Manchester City while matched against Raheem Sterling and denying Ilkay Gundogan.
Moyes pleased with Johnston form at West Ham
Johnson pleased Moyes with what he produced during West Ham’s fixtures without Coufal available. The Irons boss praised the youngster’s efforts after Thursday’s Europa League tie with Genk, after benching the right-back for the Czech Republic international to start.
“[The decision was] very tough because Ben Johnson has been playing really well,” Moyes said, via football.london. “Vladimir Coufal, everybody’s aware of how well he’s done for us over the last 18-months or so.
“But I want the competition and the pleasing thing is when Vladimir got injured and Ryan Fredericks was injured at the time, Ben stepped up.
“So, we’ve been pleased with Ben, but he’s had four games in a row very quickly. So, today was an easy decision to leave him out the team tonight [and] put Vladimir in.”
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