West Ham are lining up a move for Nottingham Forest defender Joe Worrall should the Championship side fail to win promotion in Saturday’s play-off final at Wembley.
David Moyes is keen to bring in at least one new centre-back this summer as he looks to improve the quality of his squad and ward off the kind of defensive injury crisis that briefly threatened to derail the Hammers’ season.
Worrall has been one of the Championship’s standout defenders this term, captaining a Forest side who have turned their season on its head to reach this weekend’s showpiece against Huddersfield.
The Midlands club lost six of their first eight games before Chris Hughton was sacked and replaced by Steve Cooper, but went on to finish fourth, with Worrall the centrepiece of a backline that finished the season with the second-best defensive record in the division.
The 25-year-old joined Forest as a teenager and is not expected to leave his boyhood club should they end their 23-year top-flight exodus but the Hammers are preparing to take advantage if they fall short, with Fulham and Leicester among the other Premier League clubs to have been linked with a move.
Unlike both, however, West Ham can offer European football, while Moyes has a proven record of developing talent from the second-tier, most recently in the case of Jarrod Bowen, who was signed from Hull in January 2020 and now appears set for a first England call-up.
West Ham already have four senior centre-backs on their books, but injuries to Kurt Zouma, Angelo Ogbonna and Issa Diop at one stage left Moyes with Craig Dawson as his only available option.
Moyes will receive significant backing in the transfer market this summer after securing a second successive season in Europe, but is keen to raise further funds through player sales and Diop is among those the club will listen to offers for, while there are concerns over the reliability of Ogbonna’s fitness as he returns from a long-term knee problem at the age of 34.
