Chelsea defender Kurt Zouma has reportedly agreed personal terms with West Ham United with a cross-London switch now imminent for the Frenchman.
According to Telefoot journalist Julien Maynard, Chelsea defender Kurt Zouma has reached an agreement with West Ham United over personal terms and is set for a medical ahead of a transfer.
Zouma’s time at Chelsea has been a bit of a hit and miss. The 26-year-old arrived in 2014 from Saint-Etienne with a lot of promise and potential. However, injuries, inconsistency and competition meant that he was never really able to nail down a starting berth for himself despite impressing early in his spell under then-manager Jose Mourinho.
Zouma had a couple of loan spells away at Stoke City and Everton, with the latter proving to be a turning point as he was offered another shot at Chelsea by Frank Lampard in 2019. And while he initially featured regularly under the club legend, game-time reduced last season upon the arrival of Thiago Silva, while he became almost an afterthought once Thomas Tuchel took over.
With the Blues now bringing in academy graduate Trevoh Chalobah into the first-team fold as well as pursuing the signing of Jules Kounde from Sevilla, Zouma does not have a place in the side now and has, thus, been linked with an exit for quite some time now. A move to West Ham was touted earlier this summer, but talks broke down.
Accord trouvé à l’instant entre Chelsea, West Ham et Kurt Zouma !
Tout s’est accéléré aujourd’hui.
Le défenseur français va rejoindre les Hammers contre 30M€, pour 5 ans.
Visite médicale en train d’être organisée. Elle aura probablement lieu dés demain. #Mercato @telefoot_TF1— Julien Maynard (@JulienMaynard) August 24, 2021
However, the Hammers revived their interest in the 26-year-old Frenchman as they look to add more quality to their ageing backline. While a €30 million fee was agreed with Chelsea, personal terms were proving to be a roadblock. However, as Maynard reports, that hurdle has been crossed with West Ham and Zouma now on an agreement over a five-year contract.
As per Maynard’s update which came on Tuesday, Zouma was pencilled in for a medical at West Ham on Wednesday, although there hasn’t been any fresh development on that front at the time of writing. Nonetheless, it seems like the 26-year-old French international will soon be on his way out of Stamford Bridge, making a switch across London to join up with David Moyes & co.
The move, should it go through, will be a good one for West Ham as they were in need of adding some younger faces to their defence, despite the likes of Craig Dawson and Angelo Ogbonna doing fairly well in the opening fixtures of the season. With Europa League football at the London Stadium this season, squad rotation becomes important and a player like Zouma would boost the roster.
