Former West Ham midfielder Don Hutchison has revealed that he told former Irons manager David Moyes to sign Borussia Monchengladbach midfielder Denis Zakaria.
The 48-year-old journeyman admitted on his official Twitter account that he had recommended the Swiss international to the Moyes as well as Mickael Cuisance, who is now at Bayern Munich, on his first day in charge of West Ham as shown in the tweet below…
I told David Moyes about this lad and Michael Cuisance on his first day at West Ham 😉 pic.twitter.com/m12yweKlak
— Don Hutchison (@donhutch4) October 18, 2019
The surprising revelation comes after Zakaria was reported by BILD to be at the centre of a tug-of-war between some of Europe’s biggest clubs, with the likes of Bayern, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund and Manchester United all reportedly interested in the 22-year-old midfielder.
With BILD claiming that Gladbach will only sell Zakaria for around €50m (£43m), it seems like Moyes and West Ham made a mistake not pursuing the Swiss midfielder back in 2017, who has this season further established himself as one of the Bundesliga club’s most important players.
As a scout report from the Bundesliga’s official website shows, Zakaria is a jack-of-all-trades midfielder, able to play elegantly in midfield with precise passing as well as able to make vital tackles with his defensive-minded style of play, which is why it’s no surprise the report compares the youngster to Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira.
With Zakaria now seemingly establishing himself as the next enforcer superstar in world football after a great start to life in the Bundesliga this season, with stats from Transfermarkt showing that the 22-year-old has played every minute of first-team this campaign for the German side that currently sees them top of the table, West Ham will no doubt be kicking themselves for not taking on Hutchison’s advice on the youngster.
