'From what I understand...' - Insider reveals West Ham eyeing big in-house agreement

Journalist Dean Jones has claimed that West Ham will continue to attempt to lure Ben Johnson into signing a new deal.

Ben Johnson has featured more regularly for West Ham this season with 16 Premier League appearances to his name, which is already two more than last campaign. However, this is just over half of the Hammers’ games as Aaron Cresswell and Vladimir Coufal have been the preferred fullbacks at times.

The 22-year-old defender can play pretty much anywhere along the back four but primarily operates as a right-back. With the emergence of Coufal into the Hammers side last campaign, Johnson has had to watch his team from the sideline at times but has relished the chance when given to him on the field, ranking in the top 10 for player ratings.

West Ham attempted to sign Johnson on a long-term deal but the young defender opted against the proposal, and Dean Jones has now spoken to GIVEMESPORT and claimed that the Hammers will still be keen to tie him down on a new contract soon.

“They tried to sign him on a long-term contract, which wasn’t done, but they triggered this extension and from what I understand, West Ham want to get him to sign fresh terms within the next six months or so if they can,” Jones said.

TIG Thoughts on Ben Johnson…

Ben Johnson is currently valued at £2.7 million by Transfermarkt, but if another club want to acquire his services, they would almost definitely have to pay a bigger sum than this.

A couple of interesting stats that the youngster has thrown up is he’s  won just 53% of his overall duels with opposition players, but has made zero errors that have led to goals, as per Sofascore.

Of course, Johnson is only young, and enduring in his most capped Premier League season so has a lot to learn,