West Ham United are reportedly eyeing a move for Aston Villa defender Kortney Hause, with them wanting a centre-back this summer.
According to a report from Football Insider, West Ham have set their sights on strengthening the defence this summer, and one of their targets is Villa's Hause.
The Irons are looking at multiple options at centre-back during this transfer window, with their only central defenders at the club being Issa Diop, Craig Dawson, Angelo Ogbonna and out-of-favour defender Winston Reid, with all of them apart from Diop being in their thirties.
Hause, who is now 26, has been added to their transfer targets for the summer, with the former Wolves defender going down to fourth in the pecking order in Dean Smith's side after the loan signing of Axel Tuanzebe from Manchester United.
Villa's first-choice pair of Tyrone Mings and Ezri Konsa was very steady last season, with Smith creating a partnership that excelled throughout the whole season, but it was still clear that they needed to reinforce in that area in case one of them got injured, and the signing of Tuanzebe must have been made with that in mind.
As a result, it remains to be seen whether Villa will be tempted to cash in on Hause in an area where they are relatively light, especially doing so to a club that is in a similar position to them.
However, the former England Under-21 international's contract at Villa is due to expire next summer, and so they will be thinking about that a lot when it comes to negotiations for Hause, with them being keen to get some money for him rather than risk losing him for free.
West Ham are willing to pay a significant sum to strengthen their defence despite having a limited transfer budget, especially with the departure of Fabian Balbuena at the end of last season.
Hause joined Villa from Wolves in 2019 for a fee of around £3 million, and since then he has played 46 times for Smith's side, with him making just ten appearances in all competitions last season after sustaining two injuries that kept him out of action for significant parts of the season.
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