According to transfer guru, Fabrizio Romano, West Ham United have reopened talks to sign Chelsea left-back Emerson Palmieri.
Three days ago it was widely reported that the deal was off owing to club and Emerson not being able find any common grounds on the pay-check, with Emerson asking for a salary of £95,000-per-week, up from the £70,000 he currently earns at Chelsea which the Hammers were not willing to meet. But it seems that both the parties wanted to reach an agreement for the move to come to its conclusion.
Chelsea are now looking to offload a lot of fringe stars as Marcos Alonso looks to complete his move to FC Barcelona, Callum Hudson-Odoi is likely to leave out on loan and now Emerson Palmieri is looking very likely to leave with Atalanta and Nottingham Forest also monitoring his situation at Stamford Bridge.
But it is the London rivals, West Ham, who look very likely to sign the Italian left-back on a permanent deal with an official bid of £13m already submitted to Chelsea. It is said that owner Todd Boehly will only allow a permanent move after rejecting the advances of OGC Nice who offered a loan move back in July.
This could also be a good move for Chelsea, both financially and professionally, as the club will want to maintain a sense of goodwill as they eye the acquisition of West Ham’s crown jewel Declan Rice, who many consider will return to Stamford Bridge either the next summer or the season after just before the English international is eligible to hit the free agency market.
But why do West Ham want Emerson Palmieri?
Well for starters, the club’s primary left-back Aaron Cresswell is now 32-years-old and has regressed for two seasons in a row. The three-capped England international has served the Hammers well, having represented them for seven years. But there is a drop-off in the quality he adds to this dynamic and young West Ham team. His tackles & interception numbers have gone from 2.7, 2.5 to 2 in the last three seasons. His key passes per 90 are also down from 1.6 to 1 last year.
If we compare Aaron Cresswell to Emerson he only comes out top in progressive passes but if we go through other metrics, Emerson is quite clearly doing a better job.
Emerson’s a bit of a jack of trades. None of his metrics stands out alone but all of his metrics are above a decent level. The Italian has historically been very astute defensively with a career average of 2.5 defensive actions per match and makes 1.5 clearances added with the fact that being a full-back he does not get dribbled past quite so often. His stamina to play long minutes is the reason why he keeps on working very hard for the team. Like Aaron, he likes to be involved in the game very much with nearly 39 passes but he has the better accuracy with passes finding his on 85.6% of the occasions.
The Italian was a backup to Leonardo Spinazzola for Italy’s triumphant UEFA EUROS 2020 campaign and was called upon by manager Roberto Mancini to start in the semifinals and finals of the competition after his first-choice left-back suffered an ACL injury. This tells that the player is not afraid of playing in the big games and sure there will be a lot of these in West Ham’s 2022-23 season.
Conclusion
This is a good move from all three parties’ perspectives. West Ham United are not paying a big fee for Cresswell’s replacement and they are getting a player with big experience in the big moments and also he is four years younger than the Englishman. Chelsea gets a fee on a player that is hardly going to feature after stacking their left side with two of the most renowned wing-backs in the league and Emerson will finally get some continuous amount of games under his belt, something he is not been able to get it at AS Roma and Chelsea.
