On the back of Taty Castellanos sealing his £26 million move to Premier League strugglers West Ham United, Lazio have wasted little time reinvesting those funds.
Of course, the Italian giants will hope to do a better job than the Hammers did when they sold Declan Rice to Arsenal for a British record fee in 2023. Or, in fact, when they sold Mohammed Kudus to bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur and then splurged £18 million on Mads Hermansen.
West Ham rubbished those Edson Alvarez return rumours a few weeks back, the midfielder snapped up to help fill a Rice-shaped void farmed out on loan to Fenerbahce.
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James Ward-Prowse, as far as Nuno is concerned, is out of sight and very much out of mind.
It wasn’t quite as disastrous as Liverpool’s post-Luis Suarez splurge or Tottenham’s brainfrazzling attempts to rebuild after Gareth Bale’s Real Madrid switch, but if West Ham United could turn back the clock to 2023, they surely would.
Over in Rome, Kenneth Taylor is obviously not the de-facto Taty Castellanos successor. The Dutchman with a name like a Bullseye contestant is a midfielder, rather than a centre-forward. But for a reported £13 million, his arrival from Ajax will represent Lazio’s first foray into the market since they green-lit Castellanos’ departure.
Lazio to sign Kenneth Taylor after selling Taty Castellanos to West Ham United
Ironically, Kenneth Taylor was linked with West Ham himself last summer, before Mateus Fernandes and Soungoutou Magassa arrived towards the end of August.
Lazio, then, are using the Castellanos money to sign a midfielder with alleged admirers at the London Stadium.
“We’re going to take Taylor from Ajax,” president Claudio Lotito told reporters after Wednesday’s 2-2 draw with relegation-threatened Fiorentina. “And that’s not the end of the winter.”
Photo by Jeroen van den Berg/Soccrates/Getty Images
West Ham will be hoping it is not the end of theirs either.
Even before the loss to Nottingham Forest, and after the £44 million strengthening of his frontline, Nuno urged the board to bring in further reinforcements.
“We still need more players,” Nuno said in his pre-Forest press conference. “We need to rebalance some positions.
“We have players going out. I think all of us [at the club] and the players realise that they need help.”
Hammers could replace Guido Rodriguez with Tochukwu Nnadi
As Fabrizio Romano explains, Guido Rodriguez could leave for Juventus shortly after Niclas Fullkrug secured his move to AC Milan. At least one new midfielder is a must, then. Luis Guilherme joined Sporting Lisbon, leaving the club one winger light, and it goes without saying that central defensive additions could very conceivably be the difference between a genuine survival scrap and a whimpering relegation.
Charlie Cresswell of Toulouse remains a key target in the defensive department.
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The aforementioned Taylor shot to fame at Ajax with his box-crashing runs from an advanced number eight role. West Ham appear to be targeting a number six these days, meanwhile. Tochukwu Nnadi, the uber-aggressive Nigeria international based in Belgium with Zulte Waregem, is a target.
Nnadi models himself on N’Golo Kante and Moises Caicedo. If he possesses even a fraction of their quality, what a deal this could be at a reported £3.5 million.
“I enjoy being aggressive, both when I’m not holding the ball and when I am,” Nnadi told the Daily Post while on Africa Cup of Nations duty with the Super Eagles.
“I stay calm [on the ball] like Moise Caicedo and Ngolo Kante.
“I also like [former Manchester United man Sofyan] Amrabat. I watch him a lot. And I also look at [Besiktas’ former Leicester ace] Wilfred Ndidi.”
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