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Fabrizio Romano: West Ham United plan direct contact with agents over Alphonse Areola move
West Ham United are now planning fresh direct contact with the agents of Alphonse Areola over keeping him at the club beyond this season.
That’s according to Fabrizio Romano, who has reported that the Irons have the option to buy the Frenchman for £11million, or simply extend his loan by another year.
David Moyes has primarily used Lukasz Fabianski in the Premier League, with Areola then having full trust in all of the cup competitions, including the Europa League.
Writing on his personal Twitter account on Friday morning [20 May], Romano shared the latest plans from the London Stadium for the keeper.
“West Ham are planning to have new direct contacts with Alphonse Areola’s agents to keep him at the club, negotiations are already underway,” he wrote.
“There’s a buy option worth £11m – or an option to extend loan deal from PSG for one more season.”
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Get it done.
This would certainly be the best move for all parties.
The Irons would keep Areola, rather than bring in another goalkeeper who may expect more game time and would not welcome the direct competition with Fabianski.
Areola understands that and has formed a good relationship with the Polish international, something that can not be overlooked moving forward.
Moyes has a sense when it comes to finding bargains, and £11million for a French international is brilliant business, and it may even be lowered should the loan option be used instead.
Keepers such as Sam Johnstone have been mentioned as he prepares to become a free agent after leaving West Brom, but if something isn’t broken, there is no need to fix it.
We can imagine that Areola will be happy to stick around, and hopefully, these direct talks can come up with an answer early in the window so we can strengthen elsewhere without having to worry about this.
In other West Ham United news, Martin Samuel has responded to the latest London Stadium developments dubbing it the “deal of the century”
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