In the race to sign Southampton starlet Tyler Dibling, a race which reportedly includes Premier League powerhouses Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea, West Ham certainly have the feel of a long-shot outsider.
While suggestions that Southampton want more than Liverpool paid for Virgil van Dijk appear wide of the mark – England Under-21 international Tyler Dibling is valued at closer to £50 million than £100 million – a still-lofty price tag is just one of the reasons why a summer switch to the London Stadium appears decidedly unlikely.
Now, with the pedigree stallions of Liverpool taking their place in the starting blocks, the odds on West Ham United nipping in by a nose are longer now than ever.
West Ham were linked with Dibling back in January, following some eye-catching early-season performances from a winger who would become a rare bright spark in a dismal Saints campaign.
Hammers News understands that head of recruitment Kyle Macaulay is a huge fan of the one-time Chelsea academy kid. The problem is, so are many others in his position. That includes a Chelsea outfit keen to right the wrongs of Dibling’s 2022 departure.
Tyler Dibling during Tottenham Hotspur FC v Southampton FC in the Premier League
Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images
Tyler Dibling told he’s better off at West Ham United than Liverpool
Caught Offside report that Liverpool have now thrown their hat into a ring already occupied by Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United. Southampton also recently rejected a £30 million bid from German gem-polishers RB Leipzig.
There are, therefore, shades of the Liam Delap situation at the London Stadium.
West Ham were pretty early to the Delap party. Targeting the former Ipswich Town talisman before it was cool. Former Aston Villa captain Gabby Agbonlahor even urged Delap to choose West Ham over his eventual destination of Stamford Bridge.
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Now, as Agbonlahor sends similar advice the way of Tyler Dibling, the feeling is that, like Delap, this is a player who has already moved beyond Macaulay’s reach.
“We were talking about Delap [before]. Dibling; Can he go to an Everton or a West Ham and show it for a couple of seasons?” Agbonlahor wonders.
“He’s too young for that big move to Liverpool.”
Southampton ace ‘plays like Cole Palmer’ but told Liverpool switch would come too soon
While Sadio Mane, Adam Lallana and the aforementioned Van Dijk all enjoyed much success after swapping St Mary’s for Anfield, a 19-year-old winger who had not started a senior league match before last season is currently at a very different and much earlier stage in his development.
Furthermore, Southampton and Liverpool were a lot closer in terms of quality back then – a regular challenger for the European spots at the time – than they are now.
“Personally no, I don’t think so,” ex-Watford striker Troy Deeney agreed when asked about whether Dibling should follow in Mane’s Liverpool footsteps.
“I think he’s got a lot to prove. To go from Southampton to Liverpool is a monster of a jump.”
West Ham are reluctant to spend big before they conduct a few sales, meanwhile. As such, by the time Macaulay may feel he is ready to take a punt at Dibling, the Southampton whizzkid may already be on his way to a Premier League outfit with far deeper pockets.
“Do you know what it is? I don’t want to put any pressure on him, but he plays his game like Cole Palmer, doesn’t he?,” former Aston Villa and Manchester United striker Dion Dublin told the BBC earlier in the campaign.
“He plays free and easy, and he gets himself into good positions, rolls players and takes the ball well.”
“It is the quality he has got. The belief in himself and the physical power,” agrees ex-Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy. “He just goes past people with ease. He has got a lovely left foot. He is very brave on the ball and his decision-making is good.
“It is difficult to get too over the top with these young players, because he has just come on to the scene, but he is going to be something special.”