West Ham are to launch a fresh bid for Southampton midfielder James Ward-Prowse, according to the Evening Standard.
The newspaper reported online on Monday (7 August) that the Saints are holding out for £35million after rejecting West Ham’s latest bid of £30m.
England midfielder Ward-Prowse has been on West Ham’s radar throughout the summer but a move has yet to materialise and he started Southampton’s opening 2-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship.
The news about Ward-Prowse follows an update on Ajax midfielder Edson Alvarez, who the Standard say West Ham hope to make their first summer signing.
Sky Sports reporter Florian Plettenberg wrote on Twitter that a verbal agreement has been reached, though Ajax came back with a counter offer of £34m to West Ham’s opening gambit of £30m.
Things are finally happening
It has been a summer of pain for West Ham so far in the transfer market.
The sale of Declan Rice brought in a huge £105million windall, but the delay in getting the Is dotted at the Ts crossed took far too long.
Since then, the disconnect in strategy between manager David Moyes and technical director Tim Steidten has been evident, and it has led to West Ham failing to utilise any of the Rice money on much-needed reinforcements thus far.
But at last it looks as though things are moving in the right direction. It appears a matter of when not if Edson Alvarez will arrive from Ajax, and West Ham will hope that will have a domino effect elsewhere.
And the next domino to drop could well be Ward-Prowse, a signing that would assuage Moyes’ desire to bring in proven Premier League talent to the London Stadium.
It’s time to get moving, let’s hope this is the start of things to come.
In other West Ham news, Gianluca Scamacca is signing his contract to quit the London Stadium.
