West Ham are said to be eyeing a move to sign Rob Holding on a season-long loan deal, despite Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta insisting he is not available this summer.
The soon-to-be 25 year-old joined the club in 2016 after enjoying his breakthrough season with Bolton in the Championship, but has struggled to stay fit over the years.
Holding initially made an impact when making his Arsenal debut amidst an injury crisis shortly after his arrival, but his injuries have meant that he has regularly found himself sidelined just as he was getting a run of games together.
Our club is claimed to have turned down an offer from Newcastle to sign him this month, before he started the weekend’s win over Fulham, and the manager told BT Sport(via the DailyStar) insisted that Rob now has to change his thinking and concentrate on playing for our team.
Those comments do not appear to have put West Ham off however, with The Sun claiming they are to offer £5 Million to Arsenal for a season-long loan deal. They claim he will find himself down the pecking order once the full squad is available, with David Luiz, Calum Chambers, Pablo Mari and Shkodran Mustafi all to return from the sidelines, while William Saliba is also expected to step up as he settles in in North London.
Holding certainly is needed with the amount of players that we have sidelined currently, but you have to admit that he will likely struggle for minutes once everyone is fit, and with three weeks left of the transfer window I wouldn’t be shocked if he still left before the deadline.
Could Holding earn a more prominent role in the coming weeks to prove his worth to the team?
Patrick
First of all I’ll say that I rate Holding highly and think he will be a big part of the squad.
His long term injury hampered his development but he is showing signs he’s overcome that.
At the moment with the current pandemic and financial restrictions this is putting on most clubs I think this will be a good move towards the end of the transfer window. Not now as we have injuries at central defence and he is needed but if injured players start to come back £5m would help a lot in getting in players.
It would help him develop further if he was getting first team football in the premier league.
Next season Mustafi, Sokratis, Luiz and maybe Chambers will be gone. We’ll get back a more experienced Holding ready to fit right back in plus we’ll have £5m this season to put towards buying.
All said if Kroenke put his hands in his pocket we wouldn’t need to be discussing letting players go out on loan to top up the transfer kitty.