West Ham United are interested in Aston Villa’s John McGinn, according to a report by the Daily Mail.
It is claimed that we are keen on the Scotland international midfielder, however, we will have a fight on our hands as Leicester City are also keeping tabs, whilst the Villans are in talks about trying to tie him down to a new contract – something they are supposedly confident about doing.
Although this particular transfer would seem highly unlikely to be able to achieve following Aston Villa’s promotion to the Premier League, there is no doubt that McGinn could be a player that does a job for us in the future.
The 24-year-old was outstanding in the Championship last season and was a hugely influential figure for the team as he helped to make things tick in the middle as well as when going forward.
Having been purchased for just £3million last summer, he had an impressive return of seven goals and nine assists in his 43 appearances in England’s second tier, whilst he worked tirelessly in the middle of the field.
According to statistics compiled by WhoScored, McGinn managed to average 2.1 tackles and an interception per match as he helped to break up the play in front of their defence.
Going forward, the Scotsman recorded an average of 1.7 key passes and 1.9 dribbles per game, whilst he had a pass success rate of 79.2%, and these are all figures that could benefit West Ham moving forward.
Mark Noble does the role of being a tireless midfielder rather well at the moment, however, with him starting to enter the final stages of his career, McGinn could be the perfect replacement for him over the long-term future – the latter of the duo was only outdone by Mr Hammer in terms of his passing (via WhoScored’s player comparison tool).
With his ability to cover so much ground on the pitch and his tackling ability, perhaps he would be an ideal partner for Declan Rice and would help the Hammers to create a solid foundation in the middle of the field for a number of years to come.
As we mentioned, it might be hard to see a move happening for him this summer, however, if he continues to improve and has a good campaign for Aston Villa in the Premier League this season, he is one West Ham should strongly consider making a move for in the future.
