West Ham United issue payment demand to Nottingham Forest and Wolves over Aaron Cresswell transfer
West Ham have told Wolves and Nottingham Forest they will have to meet their demand on payment terms to sign Aaron Cresswell, according to Alan Nixon.
The Sun journalist reported via Patreon on Monday (7 August) that the Hammers “have told both that they need to pay the fee in one guaranteed chunk” for the 33-year-old to go.
The Daily Mail had reported on their website on 19 July that Wolves were in talks for the “vastly experienced” defender and were willing to pay £2.5million for him, but those negotiations have since broken down.
That led Cresswell to ask owner David Sullivan directly to let him go as he wants to move closer to the north-west [Nixon, 30 July].
According to The Guardian on 19 July West Ham want as much as £5m to sell Cresswell after 331 appearances in claret and blue.
Sour end
There was clearly plenty of reason to hold out for what the Irons felt Declan Rice was worth given his significance to the team and the size of the deal.
But on a deal more than 20 times smaller it seems a shame for Cresswell to be heading out of the club in such a manner after years of service.
Wolves have pretty significant financial issues which explains their apparent inability to just put the money on the table and be done with it, but perhaps Forest will be able to satisfy the West Ham hierarchy.
At his age, and with Emerson already established after his move from Chelsea last summer, Cresswell is no longer the key man he once was, and looks to have been eyeing such a move for over a year.
The club are chasing left-back targets that will push him even further down the pecking order so it looks to be in everyone’s interest for him to move on.
Were he to make it to Molineux he would join up with Craig Dawson who made his own low-cost move there a year ago.
With the Rice sale, and now Gianluca Scamacca’s to Atalanta, the Hammers have made plenty of money this summer.
And now Edson Alvarez is finally set to be the first man they spend any of it on it’s time to really start motoring through some business before the window shuts, and finding a compromise to let Cresswell leave should be part of it.
In other West Ham news, Sky Sports have reported whether the key men at the centre of the transfer window mess are set to leave.