Soucek tipped to move to Premier League elite by former coach amid reported Bayern interest

Martin Macdonald

• Updated: 19 May 2021 15:43 BST
• 2 min read

West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek has been tipped to make a big move to one of the Premier League elite by his former coach Dusan Uhrin.

SInce his move to England, Soucek has been a revelation, particularly in the 2020/21 campaign as he has scored eight goals in 25 matches from central midfield.

Despite being deployed in his natural role as a midfielder, he remains West Ham’s top scorer in the Premier League this season.

Such performances have naturally catalysed interest in him from elsewhere, including reportedly German champions Bayern.

Though Uhrin doesn’t see Bayern in Soucek’s future, he can see his former player featuring for one of the Premier League’s big guns.

“He is constantly improving, so why not?” the former Slavia Prague manager said, as reported by BBC Sport.

“Who scores eight goals from his position? I wouldn’t expect a transfer to Bayern, but rather a team in England.”

Soucek is a bit of a late bloomer, as he is enjoying the best season of his career at 25 in England after spending years in his home country of the Czech Republic with Slavia Prague, Viktoria Zivkov, and Slovan Liberec.

There were some who doubted his talents back in the day, even Uhrin, who wasn’t impressed when he initially saw the towering midfielder.

“He didn’t have good passing,” the Czech boss said.

“Also, it didn’t look very good when he was running. That might have been the reason why coaches didn’t want him.

“But he was great in improving himself and working hard in training. He progressed really quickly, took responsibility and remained a great boy.

“You had to get used to watching him because at first glance he looked slow.”

Since 2016, Soucek has been a full international for the Czech Republic and in his 29 appearances for his country he has scored four goals.

In 2020, he was awarded the Czech Golden Ball, an award given for the country’s best player of the past 12 months.