West Ham United’s pre-season schedule is now underway.
On Saturday, in a behind-closed-doors fixture in Zürich, the Hammers beat Grasshoppers 3-1; Andy Irving, Callum Marshall and Lucas Paquetá the scorers.
Next up for Graham Potter’s team, they’ve travelled stateside for the Premier League Summer Series, facing Manchester United in New Jersey this weekend, before games against Everton in Chicago and then Bournemouth in Atlanta.
With the start of the proper season fast approaching, will the Irons get their hands on a new attacking midfielder?
Latest on West Ham's transfer activity
Fair to say, West Ham supporters were not best pleased about the news that star winger Mohammed Kudus had joined fierce rivals Tottenham Hotspur for £55m, the first player to make the controversial move since Scott Parker 14 years ago.
In terms of arrivals, the Hammers have bolstered their full-back options, signing El Hadji Malick Diouf from Slavia Prague for a reported fee of £19m, while Kyle Walker-Peters has joined from Southampton on a free transfer.
Nevertheless, Kudus’ departure means Potter will be demanding new signings in forward areas, hence why Sébastien Vidal of Weekend Sports is reporting that West Ham “have opened initial talks” to sign Georgiy Sudakov from Shakhtar Donetsk.
They add that the “creative midfielder” is valued at around £30m by the 15-time Ukrainian champions, with the Hammers “looking to accelerate the deal” and finalise the move as soon as possible.
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So, could he soon become the third Ukrainian to represent West Ham United, after current national team head coach Serhii Rebrov and the country’s second-highest goalscorer of all time, Andriy Yarmolenko?
How Georgiy Sudakov would improve West Ham
After spending three years in Metalist Kharkiv’s academy, Sudakov joined Shakhtar Donetsk as a 15-year-old, before making his senior debut in 2020, this coming off the bench during a famous Champions League victory over Real Madrid at Estadio Alfredo Di Stéfano no less.
Subsequently, the 22-year-old has accumulated 140 appearances for Shakhtar, scoring 35 goals and registering 24 assists, including netting against Barcelona, Young Boys and Stade Brestois in Champions League ties.
Despite being linked with a move away, Sudakov featured in both legs of his team’s Europa League qualifying victory over Ilves earlier this month, starting the first leg, a 6-0 demolition in Ljubljana; it’ll therefore be interesting to see if he’s involved in Thursday night’s second qualifying round match against Beşiktaş in İstanbul.
Having also already won 29 international caps, starting all three of Ukraine’s fixtures at Euro 2024, Sudakov has earned plenty of high praise.
Andy Jones of the Athletic labels him one of the ‘most exciting prospects’ and ‘brightest young talents’ in Eastern Europe, adding that he is a ‘versatile midfielder’ who operates best as a number ten, given that he is ‘technically gifted’ and poses ‘creative threat’.
Meantime, Shakhtar Donetsk sporting director Serhiy Palkin stated back in April that his star man “will definitely move to a top European club this summer”, with aforementioned national team manager Rebrov asserting that he has “a bright future”.
On top of this, analyst Ben Mattinson describes him as “exciting” and “unpredictable”, tipping him to replace Florian Wirtz at Bayer Leverkusen. The 22-year-old German has just joined Liverpool for £116m, a Premier League record fee, so let’s assess how the duo compare.
Appearances
8
9
Minutes
702
764
Goals
2
6
Assists
1
1
All statistics below are on a per-90 basis:
Shots
1.3
2.6
Shots on target %
40%
63.64%
Chances created
1.5
3.0
Passes
46.3
52.4
Pass completion %
83.1%
88.29%
Forward passes
11.2
9.8
Take-on success %
66.67%
46.15%
Touches
62.2
75
Of course, Wirtz does come out on top for the vast majority of statistics included, but this shouldn’t be too surprising, given that he is the one making a record-breaking move to the Premier League champions.
The caveat for the table above is of course the fact that Sudakov was playing for a Shakhtar Donetsk side who finished 27th in the gigantic Champions League table, winning only two matches, while Bayer Leverkusen ended up sixth with five victories to their name.
Nevertheless, Sudakov does have the edge when it comes to forward passes and take-on success %, and his numbers are pretty comparable to those of Wirtz across the board, especially in terms of chances created.
Thus, it is clear that the Ukrainian international is a player of vast potential and one West Ham should do everything in their power to get their hands on, before an even bigger European juggernaut comes calling.
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