West Ham midfielder Josh Cullen looks likely to stay in east London this season having sufficiently impressed manager Manuel Pellegrini over the past month during pre-season.
Cullen has featured in two of the three friendlies so far this summer as he battled to nail down a place in the manager's squad for the upcoming campaign in what was seemingly his final chance to do so.
The 23-year-old enjoyed a stunning season on loan at Charlton Athletic in 2018/19 and the Addicks were desperate to bring him back to the Valley for their upcoming Championship campaign after Cullen helped steer them to League One play-off glory at Wembley.
Cullen said at the end of the season that he wanted to force his way into Pellegrini's squad in the Premier League having not had many chances to do so under the previous two managers.
Speaking ahead of last season before joining Chartlon, Cullen hinted the manager still thought the midfielder has a future in east London.
"I thought I needed to be playing and he agreed, Cullen said.
"I can't thank him enough for supporting me and making me feel at ease. He told me to go out, enjoy my football and improve and, hopefully, I'll return to West Ham a better player for him.
"I would love to play in that team, under Manuel and his staff. It is a good team, a big talented squad, but I know I have to keep working hard every day."
With the departure of Pedro Obiang to Sassuolo for £7m earlier this week, a vacancy has opened up in midfield in the squad and while Cullen is not as defensively minded as the Spaniard, the academy graduate can certainly provide adequate cover for Obiang's loss. Obiang leaving the club has certainly helped Cullen's case irrespective of the form he has shown to the Chilean manager,
What also helps Cullen is that he is a homegrown player. The Hammers currently have just six of them in their squad and need at least eight before their final 25-man squads are submitted to the Premier League ahead of the 2019/20 season.
He's not expected to be a guaranteed starter in midfield, an area where the Hammers are pretty well stacked in an attacking sense at least, but a permanent fixture around the squads is looking likely for Cullen.
