West Ham United’s search for a new centre-back has taken them down a new avenue with the club now linked with a move for Juventus centre-back Daniele Rugani.

As ever, signing an internationally-capped defender from one of the biggest teams in the world is an exciting prospect, but while Rugani has a mightily impressive CV with numerous Serie A winner’s medals to his name, he may not be the answer to David Moyes’ prayers.

Rugani has long been touted as the next big thing in Italian football, earning his first international cap in 2016 as a 22-year-old, while also being named as one of the best players born in 1994 by Don Balon.

However, he has never quite reached the heights expected of him, starting just 22 league games for Juventus over the past two seasons, and not being capped by Italy since 2018, despite the fact that the Italian team is at one of its lowest ebbs in history after missing out on the last World Cup.

Angelo Ogbonna remains a West Ham player and he had pretty much the exact same pedigree as Rugani when he joined the Hammers in 2015, but the club’s defensive problems still remain.

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While James Tarkowski would reportedly be a more expensive option, with an asking price of over £30m he may actually be the safer bet, with the defender having plenty of Premier League experience and regular game time over the past two seasons, while Rugani has grown accustomed to sitting on the bench.

Add into this the fact that Rugani has been playing for a team that have been by far and away the best side in Italy for the past decade, and you have to question whether or not he’s actually up to the task of playing for a side that are going to be underdogs most weeks, whereas we know that Tarkowski is in his element competing for a team that plays with their backs against the wall.