West Ham say Tomas Soucek is ‘going nowhere’ this summer despite Man Utd interest

Martin Macdonald

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

Tomas Soucek is ‘going nowhere’ this summer, says West Ham coach Stuart Pearce amid speculation linking the midfielder with a move to Manchester United.

The Czech Republic international has been one of the signings of the season in 2020/21, though did spend the second half of last season on loan at the Hammers before making his move permanent.

READ MORE: Top 10 Premier League signings of the 2020/21 season

Despite being deployed primarily as a central midfielder, he has found a goalscoring touch with West Ham, and has proved himself highly effective in both boxes from set-pieces.

In the 2020/21 campaign he has nine goals in 29 appearances for the club.

It is this kind of form which has catalysed speculation that a more elite club could be interesting in signing Soucek this summer.

But, that is not likely judging by Pearce’s comments.

What has been said about Soucek?

“No, he’s happy here and he’s not going anywhere, that’s for sure,” Pearce told talkSPORT.

“He’s been brilliant here, I’ve got to say. Dave brought him into the club in January of last season and since then he’s just been brilliant.

“He’s got a wonderful attitude to work, on his days off he comes in to work, he’s just really an absolute pleasure to work with.

“As a man he is top quality. He and [Vladimir] Coufal, the two Czech boys, they’ve both been brilliant.

“And Tomas can be a handful, too. England will face Czech Republic in the [Euro 2020] group stages and his ability in both boxes is very, very good.”

This week, Soucek’s reputation was enhanced further when he netted the first international hat-trick of his career in a World Cup Qualifying match for the Czech Republic versus Estonia.

There has been no confirmation of interest from Man Utd in the West Ham midfielder, but with the Hammers having shelled out upwards of £19 million to sign him from Slavia Prague in the summer, any transfer fee would need to be, at the very least, double that.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is reportedly targeting a right-winger, a centre-back, and a centre-forward as priorities this summer, so there may not be too much of the transfer kitty left over for Soucek.