West Ham make contact with Udinese over £16.7m Gerard Deulofeu transfer
West Ham United have made initial contact with Serie A side Udinese over a summer transfer for Spanish winger Gerard Deulofeu, according to Calcio Mercato.
The 27-year-old former Watford and Everton forward is enjoying a very good campaign in Italy this season with eight goals to his name so far which has caught the eye of the Hammers.
Calcio Mercato report that the club have made contact over a potential summer deal worth £16.7million.
Udinese however are still waiting for a formal offer to be made by the Irons with the price potentially going up from this initial starting fee.
Deulofeu has previous experience of playing in England having donned the blue of Everton between 2013 and 2017 (with a loan spell at the Hammers’ Europa League opponents Sevilla wedged in the middle).
Direct and dangerous
As a winger, Deulofeu embodies the old-fashioned direct running and combines it with the finesse and trickery more associated with the modern footballer.
On any given day, he can turn the game completely in his team’s favour and that is exactly what David Moyes will be hoping for if he joins him at the London Stadium.
The prospect of having him and Jarrod Bowen on either side of Michail Antonio is a mouth-watering one for Irons fans going into next season.
There is still a long way to go in negotiations and it is by no means a given that he will choose West Ham as his next destination but it is still fun to think about what could be.
A winger isn’t the priority for Moyes though and he first needs to sort out his striker conundrum to give Antonio any kind of support as the talismanic figure in the team.
In other West Ham news, ExWHUEmployee believes this academy star could be the ideal replacement for Mark Noble and Alex Kral next season.
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