It is 794 days and counting since West Ham United last signed a defender who featured in the first-team: Fabian Balbuena, who joined in July 2018.
Although Goncalo Cardoso arrived at the club last summer from Portuguese side Boavista, the 19-year-old is yet to make his first-team debut, which perhaps explains why David Moyes is so keen to use money generated by the controversial sale of Grady Diangana to West Brom to fund defensive reinforcements.
The Athletic understands that Fiorentina’s Cristiano Biraghi is the latest player to be added to the list of left-backs West Ham are interested in, while they have already made two bids, so far without success, for the Burnley centre-half James Tarkowski. Yet despite the length of time since the club managed to make a successful signing of a defender, it may not be clear to everyone why that position is a priority, when they have as first-choice centre backs one of their leading players, Angelo Ogbonna, and Issa Diop,…
