da pinnacle： Declan Rice's name has dominated the transfer columns as far as West Ham United are concerned this transfer window, but David Moyes has no doubt already started thinking about players he would like to add to his squad.
da realsbet： Bringing in a replacement for Rice – or indeed even two replacements to do the same job as their departing captain – will of course be one of Moyes' priorities.
But with time ticking until the new season begins, the Scotsman could also do with upgrading on a number of other positions, with West Ham's Europa Conference League triumph clouding over what was a disappointing Premier League campaign last time out.
As part of the negotiations with Arsenal over Rice, The i reports United are hopeful of landing full-back Nuno Tavares from the Gunners in a cut-price £8m deal.
While Tavares may not have made the cut at the Emirates Stadium, he more than proved on loan at Marseille last season that he could make a major impact across London under Moyes at West Ham.
Is Nuno Tavares a good choice for West Ham?
Tavares scored six goals in 31 Ligue 1 appearances for Marseille, which says an awful lot about the type of player he is. Indeed, The Analyst ranks the former Portugal U21 international in the very top percentile of all defenders across Europe's top five leagues for each goals scored, shots taken and touches in the opposition box last season.
To put Tavares' 0.23 goals per 90 minutes at Marseille into some perspective, he scored at an identical rate to Danny Ings at West Ham last season, while Nayef Aguerd was the Hammers' best-performing defender in that regard with 0.11 goals per 90, as per FBref.
No wonder Marseille boss Igor Tudor described Tavares has having "extraordinary" qualities, while arguing the Portuguese is good enough "to play at Real Madrid, Barcelona or Manchester City".
High praise indeed, though Tudor did himself concede Tavares still has plenty of room for improvement in a defensive sense. Even still, his 1.15 tackles won per 90 last season ranks him favourably among West Ham players, with Aguerd winning 1.02, Thilo Kehrer 0.97, Emerson Palmieri 0.95 and Aaron Cresswell 0.44.
In terms of his all-round game, FBref's comparison model ranks Chelsea's Reece James – one of the Premier League's best full-backs when fit – as one of the players most like Tavares across Europe's top five leagues in terms of their statistical profiles.
It is clear to see why, as they find the target from a similar number of shots (26.2% for Tavares, 25% for James) and are involved in a similar number of goal-creating actions per 90 (0.19 v 0.22), with that metric taking factors such as passes and take-ons directly leading to a goal into account.
They also tackle (2.15 per 90 v 2.25) at a similar rate, block the ball at an identical rate (1.23 per 90 each) and even pick up yellow cards at a similar rate (0.23 per 90 v 0.29).
That is not bad company for Tavares to find himself in, with the 23-year-old no doubt raring to prove that he is indeed good enough for the Premier League after a year away.
If that opportunity comes at West Ham rather than Arsenal, then Hammers fans will get to see a player supposedly good enough for the European champions on a regular basis next season.