West Ham United have loan-to-buy offer for Lazaro rejected by Flamengo
West Ham United have seen a loan-to-buy offer to sign Brazilian attacker Lazaro immediately turned down by Flamengo, according to Odia.
The Irons have already seen a straight £5million bid turned down by the Brazilian giants but the signing of Lucas Paqueta from Lyon for a club-record fee of more than £50million has seen the transfer kitty run very low.
David Moyes was hoping to add the 20-year-old prior to the transfer deadline on 1 September but Flamengo’s reluctance has made that very unlikely now.
Spanish club Almeria also attempted their own approach to sign Lazaro, who has impressed in a short space of time in his homeland, but they only offered £4.2million which was also rejected.
His sale could be on in future windows however as Flamengo failed in their attempts to make him sign a new deal after talks with the player and his agent.
Back-burner
As much as Lazaro has a high ceiling that could see him be a top performer in the Premier League, he won’t be ready for the step up just yet and West ham can afford to be patient on this front.
Gianluca Scamacca and Michail Antonio currently rule the number nine position at the London Stadium and the youngster is not going to change that if he arrives in the next 48 hours.
He is much better off staying in Brazil, where he is contracted until 2025, and developing further in the comfort of familiar surroundings before making the leap to head for European shores.
West Ham should return on his case in future transfer windows if they still believe in his potential and he keeps his impressive record in front of goal going but with other issues to resolve primarily, they can afford to let this one settle on the back-burner for now.