David Moyes set for double West Ham United transfer swoop to sign Denis Zakaria and Luiz Felipe this week as fees emerge
West Ham are looking to sign Denis Zakaria and Luiz Felipe “this week” for a combined fee of £25million, according to Darren Lewis in The Mirror.
The Swiss midfielder is thought to cost around £8m from Juventus as he looks to get another shot at the Premier League after his frustrating loan to Chelsea last season, and will form the first part of the David Moyes’ succession plan for Declan Rice.
And the Brazilian-born Italy defender is expected to be an outlay of around £17m as David Moyes hopes to get both deals done in the coming days once his £105m captain heads out the door.
Zakaria, 26, may be partnered with James Ward-Prowse next season if the Irons can prize him from Southampton, with a move for the Englishman also expected this week.
While Lewis writes in The Mirror that the West Ham boss sees Felipe, also 26, as “perfectly suited to the intense speed and robust nature of the English game” as he looks to get him in from Real Betis in La Liga.
Moyes reportedly wants to move quickly after Rice leaves to upgrade the spine of his team this summer.
First of many?
The importance of the Rice deal has made it priority over everything, and with so much money at stake that is hard to avoid.
But it has pushed back a lot of other highly-necessary moves this summer so the faster Moyes can start to get them tied up the better.
The Arsenal lawyers are involved in the exit for the captain but it is expected to be made officially imminently, so getting Zakaria in quickly with a view to adding one or two more in central midfield would be helpful, and for less than a tenth of Rice’s fee it leaves plenty to spare.
Centre-back has been a problem position in terms of injuries for much of the past two seasons, with Thilo Kehrer brought in at short notice late last summer with so many other options out.
Angelo Ogbonna, Nayef Aguerd and Kurt Zouma have all had notable lay-offs over the previous two campaigns so Moyes clearly wants to guard against being left shorthanded again.
Two men in this week would help get over the disappointment of apparently losing out on Harvey Barnes to Newcastle, but attacking positions will need to be dealt with sooner rather than later.
In other West Ham news, the Hammers are in the hunt for a £15m Manchester City man as well this summer.