West Ham given rude awakening as rivals ‘won’t cave’ for under £70m in Rice replacement transfer
Transfer insider Dean Jones has detailed how Fulham won’t “cave in” for £45million, and West Ham will have to bid £70million before they even consider a sale.
The Hammers are blessed with a war chest to tackle next season with. Indeed, they raised £105million from the sale of star man Declan Rice, who’s officially gone to Arsenal.
The first order or business will be replacing the midfielder. It won’t be an easy task, but they’ve lost one of the league’s best central-midfield players, and will want someone at least somewhat comparable to his skill level.
While James Ward-Prowse is among the players that have been mooted, it’s Fulham man Palhinha that appears to be top of the pile.
Multiple reports of late have suggested he’s the main target on their list, after his first season in the league saw him complete 47 more tackles than the second-highest tally.
The Hammers are reported to have acted on their interest of late, having apparently bid £45million for the Portuguese midfielder, and been told ‘not to waste their time making a new offer’.
That’s unsurprising given how much lower it is than the Cottagers’ valuation, which has been reported as high as £80million.
Transfer insider Jones has detailed West Ham’s belief that Fulham will succumb to an offer at some point, and feels that’s unlikely, especially at the measly total they first went in at.
“Let’s go back to what we were saying about Palhinha. West Ham seem to think that Fulham will eventually cave in and say that they can talk about a transfer, but I don’t believe that is the case, I don’t think Fulham will cave in, certainly not for the £45m West Ham are initially talking about here,” he told Ranks FC.
Indeed, Jones feels West Ham will have to reach a bid of at least £70million before Fulham even consider it, though the eventual sale price could be higher than that.
“I don’t know what figure we’re talking about, the initial figure was £90m, but that was to price him out, if you get to £70m you might get somewhere in the conversation,” he added.
West Ham could be forced to pay a large chunk of what they received for Rice in order to replace him. That’ll take away from their ability to improve upon other areas of the squad, which they may want to do.
As such, they’ll have to carefully weigh up Palhinha’s potential impact alongside his price tag to see if it’s worth it.
