With Aaron Cresswell believed to want a move away from West Ham and Emerson hardly pulling up any trees for the east Londoners, David Moyes’ need for a decent left-back is acute.
It’s not just in that area where the Hammers need to strengthen, however, if the club get a lead to follow up they’re duty bound to do so at this point.
That’s because they’ve yet to sign anyone this summer and are the only team in the English top-flight that have failed to secure any incoming signings.
The hope at the club has to be that once one player puts pen to paper, he’ll be swiftly followed by others, because West Ham’s current squad is simply not strong enough to sustain a Premier League and Europa League campaign.
It’s perhaps with that in mind that the Daily Mail report that one of the players that the Hammers are keeping tabs on is Feyenoord’s title-winning defender, Quilindschy Hartman.
The 21-year-old scored two goals and provided four assists in 23 Eredivisie appearances last season, per WhoScored, and has a reasonable pass completion rate of 79.7 percent, which is only slightly down on Cresswell’s 81.4 percent and Emerson’s 81.6 percent.
At this stage it isn’t clear what sort of bid would tempt Feyenoord to part with the player, but if West Ham want to get bodies in, unless the Dutch side are talking silly money David Sullivan needs to put his hand in his pocket.