West Ham United are interested in Swansea City’s Joe Rodon as the Premier League outfit scour the market for new centre-halves, according to Football London.
The Hammers appear to be fighting a losing battle in their attempts to get James Tarkowski swapping one claret and blue shirt for another.
Burnley rejected a third offer worth £31 million for their England international last week, Sky Sports reports. At this stage, it feels the time is right for West Ham to start focusing on alternative targets.
It is surely no coincidence that Rodon shares a lot of similarities with Burnley’s number six – and not just because he has honed his impressive defensive talents in the Championship.
Like Tarkowski, the 22-year-old Welshman thrives when his back is against the wall. A real warrior of a centre-back, he even made a staggering 18 clearances in a single game back in February against Fulham.
But to say Rodon is nothing more than an old-school scrapper would do him a disservice.
There is a reason why he is valued by Swansea at £20 million, after all, with Rodon aligning his excellent positional sense and crunching tackles with a fine passing range and the ability to start attacks from the back.
“I really do think he’s a class act,” Wales manager and Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs told Wales Online earlier this month. “I think he’s shown in a short space of time the quality he possesses.”
Rodon may not be the finished article, unlike Tarkowski.
But that in itself means the Championship youngster should come a lot cheaper than an established, £50 million-rated Premier League star.
West Ham’s record transfers
- Sebastien Haller
£45 million
- Felipe Anderson
£41.5 million
- Marko Arnautovic
£25 million
- Pablo Fornals
£24 million
- Issa Diop
£22 million
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