Frank McAvennie makes confident West Ham transfer claim on Stoke City man

Former West Ham United forward Frank McAvennie believes his former side’s manager David Moyes will not recruit Stoke City centre-back Harry Souttar unless he goes straight into the first team, speaking in an interview with West Ham Zone.

Prior to the anterior cruciate ligament injury he sustained whilst on international duty with Australia back in November, the 23-year-old was the subject of interest from several Premier League sides after establishing himself as one of the second-tier’s best centre-backs.

Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur and Everton were all thought to be monitoring his situation at the bet365 Stadium ahead of a potential move, with the latter reported to have been willing to fork out a sizeable £24m fee for his services.

With the centre-back signing a long-term deal in Staffordshire 12 months ago, Michael O’Neill’s side have the ability to maximise their asking price, though he isn’t expected to return before the end of this season.

A pre-season return could be on the agenda for the Australian though, potentially enabling interested clubs to launch a bid for his services and the latest side to have entered the race is West Ham, who have already scanned the EFL for talent with QPR’s Rob Dickie and Middlesbrough’s Dael Fry both on their shortlist last year.

But pundit McAvennie believes this possible deal won’t be sanctioned by manager Moyes unless he becomes a first-teamer straight away at the London Stadium.

He said: “Listen, I don’t know the boy so I don’t want to be talking out of turn. But David’s (Moyes) not bad at picking players.

“No disrespect to Harry Souttar but it wasn’t long ago when we were talking about how the names were changing of West Ham’s targets. Big names and then all of a sudden,