West Ham want to sign Union Berlin defender Danilho Doekhi, but face competition from Serie A champions Napoli according to VI.

The Hammers lost Craig Dawson to Wolves in January and didn’t replace him, leaving them with Kurt Zouma, Nayef Aguerd and Angelo Ogbonna as their only senior central defensive options.

That has led them in the direction of 25-year-old Doekhi, but Napoli and Jose Mourinho’s Roma are also interested in the Dutchman.

“Whether Doekhi will enter the billion dollar ball with Union Berlin remains to be seen, because he has put himself in the spotlight,” they wrote (3 July). 

“From Italy there is interest from champion Napoli, who will lose Min-jae Kim to Bayern Munich and is looking for a possible replacement. AS Roma and the English West Ham are also interested.”

Depth

This is going to be a busy summer transfer window for West Ham at the London Stadium, with incoming and outgoings expected.

Declan Rice is obviously leaving and that £105m will go towards the transfer budget for the summer with plenty of interest in attackers and other players.

Defensively the team needs additions to improve the depth, and while Thilo Kehrer is also capable of playing at centre-back it’s quite clear he is better as a full-back.

There has been some talk the German could look to leave too however, while Ben Johnson’s future is unclear as it stands also.

Doekhi would come in for a relatively low fee and provide solid competition for a starting place, but with no Champions League football it could prove hard to convince him to come to London ahead of Naples or even staying in Berlin for another season.

[westhamzone]