Over the past four years, Vladimir Coufal has been a very reliable player for West Ham United. Paid approximately £5 million to sign from Slavia Prague in 2020, Coufal won over the fans of the Hammers with his outstanding debut against Leicester City.
The 31-year-old has, overall, been a fantastic player for West Ham and has shown to be a true value for the money that we signed.
Undoubtedly, though, Coufal has declined over the last year or two, and this summer, he is strongly linked to a £6 million move to Galatasaray.
The Czech Republic international was reportedly upset that the Hammers exercised a one-year contract extension option in January because he felt he should have received a pay increase.
That’s reasonable enough, and Julen Lopetegui should not obstruct him if he wishes to compel a move out of the London Stadium.
But in my opinion, the best case scenario would be for Coufal to remain at West Ham and for Lopetegui to replace the Czech.
With Ben Johnson having left to join Ipswich Town on a free transfer, the Hammers are light in the right-back department.
Keeping Coufal around for his experience would make a lot of sense, but right-back is undoubtedly still an area where we can massively improve.
And judging by the latest report coming out of Italy, that’s exactly what Lopetegui plans to do this summer…
West Ham finally try to make big upgrade on Vladimir Coufal
The 31-year-old Czech Republic international could be coming to the end of his time at the London Stadium.
He isn’t at the standard we need anymore, if we are to really kick on and make some genuine progress under Lopetegui.
The modern day game requires young full-backs, bursting with pace, power and real athleticism.
It now seems like Lopetegui is finally trying to address what has been somewhat of a problem position for us over the past few years.
Could West Ham finally spend some real money on a properly exciting young full-back?
According to La Stampa (print edition July 8th), and relayed via Tutto Cagliari, West Ham have made an approach to sign Torino right-back Raoul Bellanova – a player we’ve been linked heavily with over the past few months.
However, there’s some bad news for the Hammers.
The 24-year-old defender is considered to be ‘unsellable’ by the powers that be at Torino, for now at least.
He will remain with Torino for at least one more year, and then the Serie A outfit will be open to selling him for a minimum of £21 million.
I’m convinced that we should still be going all out to sign the Italian this summer – he’d be a major upgrade on Coufal.
The Italian is a proper modern day full-back, and he can get up and down the right hand flank for the duration of the 90 minutes.
Bellanova possesses pace and athleticism in abundance, and the manner in which he defends is quintessentially Italian.
Italian website Sempre Inter raved about the right-back’s pace recently.
West Ham need to make a big upgrade on Vladimir Coufal in the summer transfer window, and I firmly believe that the 24-year-old Torino star would take us to another level entirely.
Whether the Hammers will be able to tempt the Serie A side into selling the right-back this summer remains to be seen though.
