West Ham have completed the signing of the free agent Kyle Walker‑Peters, whose Southampton contract expired this summer. The former Tottenham full-back joins Graham Potter to continue the Hammers’ summer business, which has been slow going so far.
“He was a big, big part of me making the decision,” Walker-Peters said of Potter. “I’ve always liked his style as a coach and I think it’s going to suit me best. He spoke about trying to make the club like a real family feel and that’s what I’m all about and I’d like to think I’m a good fit.”
Walker-Peters, who won two caps for England in 2022, spent five years at Southampton, enduring two relegations, and now joins a club whose other summer signings have been El Hadji Malick Diouf, a left-wing back from Slavia Prague, and the youngster Daniel Cummings from Celtic. Walker-Peters is likely to play on the right.
Potter said: “He is a player I’ve always thought highly of and been impressed by whenever he has faced one of my teams. He has a really good pedigree, a top professional who has established himself as a respected Premier League player and still has his best years in front of him.”
Meanwhile, Evan Ferguson, the Republic of Ireland striker, has travelled to Italy to complete a loan move from Brighton to Roma. On Sunday evening footage emerged of Ferguson being greeted by around a hundred fans at the airport after flying over in a private plane.
Speaking from Las Palmas, where Brighton are preparing for a pre-season friendly with the Spanish club, the Albion manager, Fabian Hürzeler, said Ferguson still remains part of Brighton’s future plans. The aim of the season-long loan is to reboot a career affected by injuries and loss of form under Hürzeler and his predecessor, Roberto De Zerbi.
“For us it is always important the individual players have an environment where they can develop, we decided the loan was the best option for us,” said Hürzeler. “He is still a player of us, he still brings quality with him, he is a target player and I am sure when he gets more game time he will one day be back and be an important player for us.”
In Italy, there had been reports a deal has been agreed for an initial loan with a €40m (£34.5m) option to buy. Ferguson spent half of last season on loan at West Ham, a disappointing spell during which he started just one match and failed to score for Potter, the manager who first blooded him at Brighton. Ferguson signed a six-year deal in 2023.
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