West Ham’s hunt for an attacking midfielder looks set to go to the wire after their latest bids for Lyon star Lucas Paqueta and Club Brugge’s Hans Vanaken were rejected.
The Hammers made a €40million offer for Brazil international Paqueta, as well as a bid worth around £10m for Belgian Vanaken but both have been turned down.
Neither deal is dead, with talks continuing with both clubs, but with just a week to go until deadline day, the Irons are running low on time to complete what has been a summer-long search.
The latest setbacks are sure to frustrate David Moyes, who on Wednesday admitted to struggling to convince some targets to join West Ham due to the size of the club.
“There have been some players we have not been able to get because they are not seeing West Ham quite yet as a really biggie,” the Scot said. “We’ve been saying: ‘We need that one [player] to make us a top-six team’. That’s the difficulty we’ve had this season.”
Vanaken is keen on a move to the London Stadium and personal terms are not expected to be an issue but Brugge do not want to sell their captain and feel the Hammers’ bid is some way below their valuation.
The 30-year-old has been with the Belgian side since 2015, scoring more than 100 goals across almost 350 appearances for the club, but has never played club football outside his homeland and sees the chance to move to the Premier League as too good to turn down at this stage of his career.
The Hammers remain interested in Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher, though at present there is little indication he will leave Stamford Bridge on loan, while continuing their pursuit of Paqueta, whose agents are in London looking to tie up a move ahead of the September 1 deadline, amid reported interest from a number of English clubs.
The former AC Milan man joined Lyon two summers ago and has scored 21 goals and laid on 14 assists in 80 appearances across all competitions since. He was voted as the best foreign player in Ligue 1 last season.
"He can play as a number 10, an eight, and he plays as a false nine for Brazil quite often. I think his pedigree is really good," Moyes said, when confirming West Ham’s bid on Wednesday.
"Pedigree doesn't always guarantee that it works, but you would hope that it helps towards him possibly getting better.”
Moyes has signed seven players this summer but still insists his squad is short, particularly in central midfield, where Flynn Downes’ signing from Swansea has been the only addition.
"We've bid for a lot of players and if I told you who, you would burst out laughing and say: 'You're kidding,” Moyes said. “Maybe we've tried to go way above our station, but we have tried to get really top players because I knew we needed it.”
