West Ham boss Nuno Espírito Santo has responded to the last 48 hours of speculation linking Konstantinos Mavropanos with a move away from the club.
The noise started earlier in the week with reports from Sky Sports Germany suggesting Bundesliga interest, before further claims emerged that West Ham could look to extend his contract once their league status is confirmed.
Contract clarity and growing speculation
Claret & Hugh also spoke to a senior source at the London Stadium, who confirmed Mavropanos still has two years remaining on his deal, plus an option for the club to extend it by a further year.
So there’s no immediate pressure — but that hasn’t stopped the rumours. Florian Plettenberg later announced that Dinos wished to leave West Ham at the end of the season to ‘seek new challenges’.
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Nuno parks the issue — for now
With the story gathering pace, it was no surprise to see Nuno asked about it in today’s press conference ahead of the Crystal Palace clash.
His response was measured rather than dismissive.
“That’s in the summer. We don’t think about anything other than our tasks in the game. Dinos is totally focused and can meet the challenges ahead, for sure.”
And to be fair, he’s probably spot on.
Managers can often fall back on stock answers and well worn cliche’s in these situations, but on this occaison I think the gaffer is telling it how it is.
One for the summer
I don’t see this becoming a distraction. There’s too much at stake in the coming weeks for heads to be turned or focus to slip.
As unpalatable as it might be, this feels like one we’ll all be revisiting in the summer.