There is only so long Graham Potter can keep relying upon the reputation he built up at Brighton and Hove Albion. But as West Ham United close in on Soungoutou Magassa, is the Hammers boss about to replicate one of the greatest successes of his time at The Amex?
Hammers News can confirm that, after West Ham reportedly saw bids rejected for Andrey Santos, Marc Casado and Mateus Fernandes, Monaco marvel Soungoutou Magassa is edging towards becoming the club’s first midfield signing of the summer window.
And, from a stylistic and squad-building perspective, Magassa could prove to be far and away the most impactful addition of the Potter era thus far.
After watching Guido Rodriguez and James Ward-Prowse toil during West Ham United’s 3-0 defeat by Sunderland last weekend, club legend Tony Cottee urged the signing of an athletic midfielder. Someone who can ‘get about’ with ‘legs’ and ‘pace’.
Magassa possesses those attributes in abundance. At 21, he is a decade younger than Rodriguez, and nearly ten years Ward-Prowse’s junior too. Longevity and mobility are certainly among his strong suits.
To suggest that Magassa would merely provide the energy missing from Potter’s existing roster would, however, underestimate the potentially transformative impact the France Under-21 international could have at the London Stadium.
Soungoutou Magassa could be Graham Potter’s new Moises Caicedo at West Ham United
In much happier times, Graham Potter guided Brighton and Hove Albion to their highest-ever top-flight finish of ninth in 2021/22. It is no coincidence this explosive end to the season, epitomised in a 4-0 trouncing of Manchester United, came after Moises Caicedo was re-called from a loan spell in Belgium.
Potter then left for Chelsea in September of that year, Brighton sitting fourth in the Premier League at the time of his departure, before Caicedo followed in his old boss’ Stamford Bridge footsteps by completing a British record £115 million transfer later down the line.
“At Brighton, we left the club fourth in the table with, in my opinion, the best pound-for-pound squad in the Premier League,” Potter told reporters back in April, pleading patience and pointing to past successes during a slow start to life with the Hammers.
“If we can achieve the same at West Ham, we can be whatever you want. If you can create that, then I’m happy. Three years’ time, if we can do that together then that’s fantastic.
“[We have to look for] an equivalent of Caicedo, an equivalent of [Alexis] Mac Allister, an equivalent of [Leandro] Trossard, an equivalent of [Robert] Sanchez, an equivalent of [Lewis] Dunk, an equivalent of [Pascal] Gross…”
Put simply, if Potter is to replicate his Seagulls success, West Ham’s recruitment team must take their fair share of the responsibility.
And the signing of El Hadji Malick Diouf from Slavia Prague plus their ongoing pursuit of Magassa, if not the underwhelming additions of Callum Wilson and Kyle Walker-Peters, has a distinctly Brighton-esque feel.
Magassa ranks higher than Chelsea superstar in a few key stats
Interestingly, when you put Soungoutou Magassa’s name into stats site Fbref, one of the players deemed most ‘similar’ in terms of strengths and style is none other than Moises Caicedo himself.
Real Madrid’s Edouard Camavinga is also brought up, alongside Tyler Adams of AFC Bournemouth and Dortmund powerhouse Felix Nmecha.
Given the considerable success Potter enjoyed alongside Caicedo on the South Coast, however, it is the comparisons with the Ecuadorian enforcer that will intrigue West Ham fans the most.
Per Statsbomb, Magassa also sits in the 99th percentile in terms of ‘possessions won’. Simply put, he is amongst the most effective midfielders on the continent when it comes to winning the ball back for his side.
Interestingly, Magassa also ranks higher than Rodriguez, Ward-Prowse, Edson Alvarez, and none other than Caicedo himself for ‘key passes’ and ‘progressive passes’.
While Magassa falls well short of the Chelsea enforcer with regards to his duel success rate and ‘progressive carries’, the man emerging as West Ham’s top target for the number six role is statistically more effective than Caicedo at breaking up opposition moves and getting his own team up the pitch with piercing, line-breaking balls.
“I like this position [the number six] because you run more, you see more of the ball. But I try to bring as much as possible as a defender [too],” Magassa told Get France Football News in 2023, painting himself to be a footballer capable of contributing in both halves and both departments.
“I have a lot of fun in midfield and I like the position a lot.”
Monaco ace sits among Jude Bellingham and Adam Wharton
Per Data MB, only four midfielders under the age of 21 averaged more through balls than him last season.
The three sitting on the podium, meanwhile, are Crystal Palace star Adam Wharton, Como sensation Nico Paz, and a certain Jude Bellingham. Good company, certainly.
Given what Graham Potter wants from his deepest-lying midfielder – tidy, intelligent yet ambitious passing combined with excellent off-the-ball work – Magassa ticks more boxes than most.
WT Analysis kept a very keen eye on Magassa’s performances for France during the 2024 Paris Olympics, meanwhile.
He started the tournament as a number ten, ended it as a centre-half, and ‘showed himself to be a great reader of the game with lots of interceptions. No player with more than 500 minutes in central midfielder had a greater defensive work-rate than Magassa’.
“Big fan of this for West Ham,” analyst Spencer Mossman writes on X, the Monaco academy graduate possessing a ‘rare’ talent few can match.
“Soungoutou Magassa is one of the best Under-23 examples of a profile I think is incredibly valuable. He can progress and control play from deep [and] covers space well out of possession.
“Most do one or the other.”
With Fabrizio Romano reporting that West Ham could potentially secure his services for an up front fee of £15 million, Magassa may arrive for a staggering £100 million less than Chelsea paid to sign Caicedo after his education under Graham Potter at Brighton.
And if Magassa ends up commanding anywhere near the same sort of fee a few seasons down the line, that will probably mean Potter’s spell in the Hammers hotseat has taken a turn for the better.
