While West Ham supporters and manager Sam Allardyce will be delighted defender Winston Reid has committed his long-term future to the London club by signing a six-and-a-half year deal, was there ever anywhere the centre-back could realistically go?
A lot of talk was suggesting Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool were keen to sign him in January. Such rumours typically proved to be nothing other than speculation as Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger brought in former Villarreal defender Gabriel Paulista.
Liverpool already had Martin Skrtel, Mamadou Sakho, Emre Can and Dejan Lovren who can play in Reid’s position, so there was never any chance the Reds would look to being in a fifth centre-back to their squad.
Tottenham have too many options for manager Mauricio Pochettino to consider bringing in another name. The likes of Federico Fazio, Younes Kaboul, Vlad Chiriches, Eric Dier and Jan Vertonghen are Spurs’ choices for the centre-back positions, so Reid was never a target.
And with Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City showing no interest in the defender, there weren’t many better options for Reid if he had left West Ham. Everton are in need of a defender, but they’ve considerably underperformed this season and wouldn’t be a career progression move as things stand.
Allardyce will be hoping the new deal will see things start to settle down for West Ham now, as their form is spiralling out of control, and threatens to spoil an incredible first-half to the season. Reid was one of a few players singled out for playing his part in the Hammers bright start to 2014/15, but just one win in 11 league games is tarnishing the legacy.
With how highly-rated Winston Reid is to West Ham, the central defender would have a large asking price (£15M) that rules out the likes of Swansea, Stoke City and possible Newcastle from signing him. There’s little value in Reid forcing a move to the clubs either, so his new long-term deal is good for both parties involved.
The right move was never going to be made available to him, given the transfer activity and many options elsewhere that other clubs had, and while Reid is a very talented defender, he’s not the best you’d get for £15M that West Ham would request.
It seemed odd that the 26-year-old was stalling contract talks in the first place, as he was never really close to completing a deal to join either of the London giants. So what club was Reid ever going to join if he left West Ham?
