We are only one week into the new Premier League season, and alarm bells are already going off at West Ham United.
Graham Potter travelled to the North East to take on newly-promoted Sunderland for their season opener, but instead of banking three points, they were played off the park, shipped three goals and returned to East London empty-handed.
It was the sort of performance that should scare the board into action and lead to some more arrivals before the transfer window slams shut in two weeks.
Fortunately, the club do seem intent on making more signings, and have now been linked with someone who’d be an upgrade on another target: Mateus Fernandes.
West Ham target Fernandes upgrade
While West Ham have made a few reasonable additions to the squad this summer in Kyle Walker-Peters, El Hajdu Malick Diouf and Mads Hermansen, they’ve not done enough, which might explain their interest in Fernandes.
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It was reported that the club had made a £30m offer for the Southampton star last week, but it was quickly rejected, only for the Saints to demand in excess of £50m for the 21-year-old talent.
Fortunately, it looks like the Hammers are now targeting another midfielder who’d likely be more affordable and could even be an upgrade on the Portuguese gem.
At least that is according to a recent report from Marco Conterio, who has claimed that West Ham are one of several teams interested in Eljif Elmas.
More than that, the journalist has revealed that the Irons have already made “an important inquiry” about the RB Leipzig ace, who has already turned down an offer from Süper Lig outfit Besiktas.
A potential price is not mentioned in the report, but as Leipzig paid €25m – £22m – for the midfielder in January 2024 and then loaned him out this January, we don’t imagine he’d cost much more than what they paid.
If so, West Ham could get their hands on a cheaper upgrade to Fernandes.
How Elmas compares to Fernandes
One of the advantages some might argue Fernandes has over Elmas is his Premier League experience, and while that is certainly a fair point, it fails to take into account the fact that the Macedonian international has far more experience playing in other top-five leagues.
For example, despite still being just 25 years old, he has made 156 appearances in Serie A and 16 in the Bundesliga, and then on top of that, he has also played 25 games in the Champions League and 21 in the Europa League.
Another area where the former Napoli ace excels is output. In just 19 appearances last season, totalling 1115 minutes, he scored four goals and provided five assists, averaging a goal involvement every 3.8 games or every 223 minutes.
For his efforts, the former Sporting CP gem was able to score three goals and provide six assists in 44 appearances, totalling 3409 minutes last season, which comes out to a slightly less impressive average of a goal involvement every 4.88 games, or 378.77 minutes.
Finally, we can really see how much more of a complete player the Skopje-born dynamo is when we take a look under the hood and compare their underlying numbers.
Non-Penalty G+As
0.34
0.18
Progressive Carries
3.56
2.45
Progressive Passes
3.05
4.51
Progressive Passes Received
5.08
3.37
Shots
1.77
1.32
Shots on Target
0.76
0.43
Passing Accuracy
80.4%
80.1%
Passes into the Penalty Area
1.36
0.86
Shot-Creating Actions
2.54
2.48
Goal-Creating Actions
0.25
0.21
Tackles
1.10
2.76
Blocks
0.85
1.32
For example, the goalscoring “jewel,” as he was dubbed by his agent George Gardi, comes out ahead in almost every metric, including things like non-penalty goals plus assists, progressive carries, shot and goal-creating actions, passing accuracy, passes into the penalty area and more, all per 90.
In other words, the Macedonian game-changer is a far more dangerous player than the Portuguese ace and could end up having a significant impact on Potter’s squad this season.
Therefore, while it might be complicated, West Ham should do all they can to sign Elmas over Fernandes this season.