West Ham cashing in on Cheikhou Kouyate now is a wise decision

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Manuel Pellegrini has not been in the West Ham hot seat for long and has already made it clear that there will be big changes at the London Stadium, with some early reports suggesting that midfielder Cheikhou Kouyate may be one of the most surprising to make way this summer.

Reports from Galsen Foot in Kouyate’s native Senegal report that the club are considering cashing in on the 28-year-old after he was one of the most disappointing performers in 2016/17, with Besiktas and Galatasaray among those considering making an offer to the Hammers.

It may come as a surprise given that Kouyate was one of the first names on the team sheet for much of the season under both Slaven Bilic and David Moyes, only missing five Premier League games all season, but when looking closely, it is not such a shock. Even more concerningly, his statistics showed a clear decline in his game, as reflected by his average WhoScored rating for the season being the lowest since he joined the club from Anderlecht in 2014.

At 28, Kouyate should be at his peak with a few years of his best still ahead of him, but instead his performances are dropping. His passing in particular is concerning, with his pass completion rate down a huge 7.4% in 2017/18 compared to 2016/17, whilst also making an average of 16% fewer passes per game.

Defensively too, he has been far less dominant, making less than half as many interceptions and clearances whilst also seeing a substantial dip in the number of tackles he made.

Such stats may not make a cast iron case for Kouyate to be sold, but with a player clearly on the decline it would be foolish to turn away any reasonable bids that are made and instead give Pellegrini more room in the budget to build his own side.