Mohammed Kudus is a player whom Julen Lopetegui can build his new West Ham United team around, according to Gary Neville on Sky Sports.
Neville was speaking alongside Dave Jones and Jamie Carragher on Monday Night Football and picked Kudus as the best newcomer in the Premier League this season.
The attacker has scored 13 goals in all competitions during his first season for the Hammers, including seven in the Premier League, making him almost undroppable at the London Stadium.
Jones asked Neville: “So when you’re Julen Lopetegui coming in, are you looking at Kudus and thinking ‘here’s someone I can build around?”
Neville replied: “Yeah, if they can keep him, absolutely.”
West Ham are set to undergo their biggest period of change in several years this summer, with incoming manager Lopetegui replacing David Moyes and looking to take the Irons forward next season.
An ageing squad could look wildly different on the first day of the new campaign, with several players out of contract and several stars in demand, one of which is Kudus.
Lucas Paqueta has been tipped to depart with a move to Manchester City mooted, and links to wide forwards such as Jota Silva and Wesley Gassova also suggest that Lopetegui is readying himself for life without Kudus or fellow free-scoring winger Jarrod Bowen.
However, the Ghanaian is only one season into a five-year contract at the London Stadium, and the Hammers’ lack of urgency to sell could help them fend off any bids for Kudus over the next few months.
Rarely does a player make such an immediate impact as Kudus has for West Ham, and as Lopetegui looks to build on a hit-and-miss season in East London, he’ll be keen to make the 23-year-old a central part of his plans for next season.
