The ideal £40m James Ward-Prowse alternative is right under West Ham’s nose

West Ham, in their current predicament, bring to mind a lowly farmhand in a fairytale who is granted three wishes by a magic cow and has absolutely no idea what to do with them.

When Declan Rice was sold to Arsenal for a British record transfer fee earlier in the summer, the expectation was that the Hammers would repurpose the incoming £105 million to strengthen a squad that stuttered and struggled in the Premier League last season. Instead, they have been beset by inefficiency and indecision, and enter August in a sorry state.

The Irons remain the only club in the top flight yet to make a signing this summer, they have had a deal for Manchester City’s Carlos Borges hijacked by Dutch giants Ajax, and there are talks of fiery disagreements between manager David Moyes and his board over how best to proceed.

And then there is the James Ward-Prowse saga. Ever since Southampton were relegated last term, it has been soundly accepted that the midfielder would be leaving his boyhood club before the end of the current window. A player as good as he is should not be playing Championship football. West Ham, with their vast new riches and their engine room black hole, have naturally emerged as potential suitors, but their pursuit has been anything but painless.

Recent updates suggest that the Hammers have had a £30 million ‘take it or leave it’ offer rejected by the Saints, and despite a firmly-held belief that the player himself is keen on a move, are understood to be exploring alternative options.

Even these proxies are proving bothersome, however. Already, a bid for Conor Gallagher has been flatly snubbed by Chelsea, exploratory talks over Manchester United’s Scott McTominay have revealed that there is a considerable discrepancy in the two clubs’ valuation of the player, and Fulham, according to some reports, could demand as much as £90 million for Portuguese revelation Joao Palhinha.

In short, the market for Premier League midfielders is massively distorted at the moment. If only we could determine which deal it was that inflated it beyond all sanity...

Anyways, the fact still remains that West Ham need reinforcements in the centre of the park, and sooner or later, they are going to have to - in the name of muddled sequencing - bite the bullet and pull the trigger, even if it means paying more than they would ideally like to.

Of the three names mentioned above, the one that feels as if they could be the most viable alternative to Ward-Prowse is McTominay. Given their own staffing issues, Chelsea are unlikely to sanction Gallagher’s exit any time soon, and Fulham have made it clear that they would rather saw their own hands off with a rusty butter knife than part company with Palhinha this summer.

There feels as if there is wiggle room on the Scotland international though. Late last month, ESPN reported that while Manchester United are not actively seeking to sell their academy graduate, they could be tempted into doing so if an offer of around £40 million was tabled.

Is McTominay worth that much? Maybe. Was Rice worth £105 million? Perhaps. There is no objective, universal market valuation system in place, and the unfortunate, stubborn point is that clubs can demand as much as they like for their players. Don’t be surprised if they tack on an extra £10 million when they know you have a British record fee burning a hole in your wallet and a looming sense of frantic desperation sweeping through the boardroom either.

But it does have to be said that McTominay is a fine player. Quite often he is demoted to the role of scapegoat at Old Trafford by frustrated supporters, but on his day, he can be a genuinely useful asset. The 26-year-old is a rangy, physical presence in the centre of midfield with a decent eye for goal and the capability to drive a team forward with his ball-carrying prowess. He can be disruptive in all the right ways, creative in plenty of others, and boasts a deluge of the Premier League experience that the Hammers are seemingly so fixated on. To put it another way, West Ham could do far, far worse.

And if they were willing to pay £40 million for Gallagher, then they should seriously consider a similar kind of outlay for McTominay.

Or perhaps more pertinently still, they should seriously consider a similar kind of outlay for Ward-Prowse.

Southampton, you see, value their captain at exactly that figure, and it is becoming increasingly apparent that if West Ham are to bring in a player of any meaningful quality this summer, then that is likely to be the minimum that they will have to pay. Gallagher would cost more, evidently, as would Palhinha, but McTominay and Ward-Prowse could be prised away from their respective clubs for somewhere in the region of that amount.

West Ham’s ideal alternative to James Ward-Prowse, then, is overtly clear; it’s either Scott McTominay, or just paying more money to sign James Ward-Prowse.