West Ham have been told to come up with another €5 million if they want to land their first-choice replacement for Emerson.
It’s now relatively common knowledge that the Hammers’ current left-back is set to leave the London Stadium in the coming weeks. As a result, West Ham—led by recruitment chief Kyle Macaulay—have been scouring some of Europe’s less glamorous leagues in search of hidden gems.
Yesterday, transfer insider Fabrizio Romano reported that Slavia Prague had rejected a bid for their highly rated wing-back El Hadji Malick Diouf. According to Romano, West Ham had tabled a €20 million offer for the 20-year-old Senegalese defender, with two other clubs also in the mix.
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Claret & Hugh were separately informed by a club source on the same day that the Hammers were actively bidding for players—and that Diouf is indeed one of the targets.
The latest update suggests that if West Ham want to get the deal done, we’ll need to increase our offer to around €25 million.
Reports also indicate that personal terms have already been agreed with both the player and his agent. The only question now is whether the Irons’ hierarchy will stump up the extra cash.
The whole point of scouting in the Czech, Swiss, Danish, and Belgian markets was to unearth unknown talents at bargain prices. If Diouf now ends up costing close to €25m, it will be interesting to see whether the club consider that value—or move on to the next target on Macaulay’s list.