West Ham are building a vibrant squad under Manuel Pellegrini, the kind which could see the club moving forward to an exciting future.
It may sound harsh considering he has only started three matches and come on as a substitute five times for West Ham, but Carlos Sánchez should not be part of that future.
At 33-years-old he is a player now on the decline, who has not shown much to indicate he is worth large wages, from being sent off at the very beginning of the 2018 World Cup up until that unfortunate injury against Macclesfield Town.
The biggest talking point between those two incidents was the lapse of concentration he had in the 92nd minute against Wolverhampton Wanderers, which led to the only goal of the game and surrendered all three points to them.
In addition, of the 26 players who received an average rating on West Ham’s 2018/19 WhoScored page, Sánchez came bottom of the list.
There has been a ruthlessness about West Ham’s business so far, encapsulated by selling Lucas Pérez quickly and letting the likes of Andy Carroll and Adrian go.
The calculative manner in which they have gone about this has also been extended to moving away from deals for incomings.
An example of this is the Stanislav Lobotka deal, which was left to find better value for money, as was reported by ExWHUEmployee, which contributed to the signing of Pablo Fornals.
West Ham should look at Sánchez’s place at West Ham in the exact same way; it would be a surprise if they came to the conclusion that he will make a difference going forward.
He would likely only have a sporadic role in the team at best, which Josh Cullen could fill equally as well- he would also have the potential to eventually grow into a greater role, as opposed to being on the decline.
Moving Sánchez on and having Cullen fill in would also mean his wages are freed up, which could allow Mario Husillos to work on bringing in another of his exciting signings.
Not all of the negatives surrounding Sánchez are his fault, but in my opinion it doesn’t make sense to keep hold of him for another season.
