West Ham United finally on verge of transfer completion as Denis Zakaria fee agreed

West Ham are closing in on the signing of Denis Zakaria and he should be an excellent addition to the squad ahead of the upcoming campaign.

The Daily Mirror reported (1 August, 07:44am) that the Hammers had agreed a deal with Serie A club Juventus to sign the Swiss midfielder.

If the deal does go through for the 26-year-old, it will bring West Ham’s long pursuit of a new central midfielder to an end as they look to replace Declan Rice after he left for Arsenal last month.

The Hammers have been absolutely desperate to get a deal over the line for a new midfielder this summer as they are currently extremely short in that department.

The club have been knocked back on a number of occasions for several players, with not one single addition so far being made to David Moyes’s squad.

But after weeks of drawn-out negotiations with Juventus, it appears as though the Irons will have a new midfielder in the form of Zakaria with the start of the Premier League season just over a week away.

The Swiss has endured a difficult time at Juventus since joining the club from Borussia Monchengladbach for a reported £6million fee in January 2022.

After making just 15 appearances for the Turin side, he was loaned out to Chelsea last season, where his campaign was cut short through injury after making 11 appearances for the club.

Despite not playing an awful lot of football over the past couple of years, Zakaria is just the kind of player the Irons have been looking for to do a job in front of the defence in the absence of Rice.

His 6’3″ presence will be welcome in the middle of the park and will ensure he’s an asset at both ends of the field.

In terms of stats on a per 90 basis last season, Zakaria made 2.54 tackles and was successful on 1.36 of those occasions a game – more than any other Hammers midfielder, with Rice attempting 2.17 tackles and having a success rate of 1.04 [FBREF].

He is certainly no slouch on the ball either, as he boasted a pass completion rate of 87.6 per cent, with Flyn Downes next up on 87.3 per cent, Rice 86.5 per cent and Soucek falling well behind on 71.3 per cent.

The midfielder will be a superb addition as we look to get our first deal over the line and start gaining some momentum in the transfer market ahead of the upcoming season.

In other West Ham news, the club are still eyeing a move for their “dream” midfielder this summer.