**Fabrizio Romano has provided us with a couple of new updates on the Mateus Fernandes saga.**
It’s excellent news for the Hammers as yet another club has joined Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, and Arsenal in the race for star midfielder Mateus Fernandes.
According to the Italian journalist, Liverpool also put their name in the hat a couple of weeks ago.
The Reds made calls to the Fernandes camp two weeks ago; however, they haven’t got back to the Hammers yet.
They want to prioritise wingers first. Once they sign a winger, the next option would be a midfielder.
Like a lot of the clubs interested, it seems like they’re all waiting for one club to make an offer to see what gets accepted and how much it would take to sign him.
For example, if Spurs, who are likely to move first, are first to get a bid accepted, then, if say, Manchester United, Liverpool, PSG or Real Madrid think that’s a good fee, they will likely match that fee and hope Fernandes chooses one of them over Spurs, which you’d hope and expect he would.
In terms of the fee, West Ham want A LOT of money.
Also, according to Fabrizio Romano, West Ham’s STARTING PRICE for Mateus Fernandes is £85m because they believe day by day, more clubs are joining the race to sign him, which the newfound Liverpool interest backs up.
The club with the best proposal with West Ham will be able to close the deal with the player.
According to other reports, Fernandes’ representatives are on the verge of agreeing personal terms. However, even if that’s true, I wouldn’t read too much into it as that’s a common tactic of his agent, Jorge Mendes, to help get a transfer going.
Fernandes is 100% going to leave the club; there are still no more clues as to where, but that £85m fee looks very likely to happen, which would be massive for us.