Reports on Sky Sports suggest that Crystal Palace are interested in signing Cheikhou Kouyate and that West Ham are in talks with Sampdoria about the sale of Pedro Obiang. While we could probably afford to lose one of these players, to sell both would leave the Hammers looking very light in central midfield. We'd have just Mark Noble, Jack Wilshere and possibly Declan Rice to play in front of the defence and would surely have to buy another defensive midfielder. Admittedly the WHU defence might need less protection with the new signings, but the squad needs a tackler behind all the attacking players.
I'd certainly keep Obiang — we struggled without him last season and he's an underrated player. Kouyate's been with us four seasons and had his moments, such as scoring the decisive goal in the relegation six-pointer against Swansea two seasons ago. He looked good in the Payet side — but then so did everyone — but has never quite become the Patrick Vieira type of player we hoped. So perhaps now is the right time to do a deal with Palace.
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